Tales of Fireteam Orion
by Pablonius
Summary: When Paul, his Vocaloid, and his three best friends sign up for the UNSC, they never realized where it would take them. Follow the group as they are taken far and wide through the Halo universe, meeting new people, fighting to protect the innocent and having a laugh along the way.
1. Prologue - A Monumental Monologue

**Hey guys! This is my first attempt that I've had the balls to publish here. The idea behind the way the Vocaloids work in this story is based off the awesome story written by Barzini called Vocaloid a Wonderful Reality. I recommend you guys read it as it is absolutely awesome and I hope Barzini doesn't mind me using the concept :3 Well that's all I have to say for now! Please review and enjoy!**

**Pablo signing off!**

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"I signed up when I was 17 along with my closest friends; we felt that a career as a marine was all we had when we left for a training camp in the summer time. While we were busy busting our butts in a training camp in the mountains of Europe, the higher ups decided to put us on the augmentation list without any permission from us. Now, I actually appreciate their decision, they turned me into what I am today. One of humanity's finest soldiers, the 'Sword and shield of Earth and all her colonies', as they put it. I am no longer, 'that nerdy kid with the robot girlfriend'.

Okay I think I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me start from the beginning, my name is Paul. I was born 18 years ago in the United Kingdom, when I was young my family moved to a metropolis called Leeds in the centre of the country. There I met the greatest idiots this world has ever known or as other people like to call them, my friends.

When I was about sixteen I applied for a college in Singapore known for its links to a certain company, specifically the one who created the most popular Vocaloids. They accepted me as a student and allowed me to do my work in my home country so I could continue my standard education. Perhaps the best part of this was the companion I acquired along the way, you see at this college each student gets their own Vocaloid and assignments include things like composing new songs for the Vocaloids to sing. Also thanks to 26th century technology, these Vocaloids are able to project themselves anywhere there is light, which is absolutely awesome! But anyhow the Vocaloid I was assigned was none other than Hatsune Miku herself. She came back to the UK with me and we went about our lives like nothing had changed."

"Hey whatcha thinking about?" Richard quizzed.

"Seriously Rich? You just completely ruined my train of thought!" Paul complained before he lapsed back into his thoughts. "Right where was I? Oh yeah! Things were going along swimmingly until I was abruptly shoved into another school that had the right features and services for Miku. It wasn't until later that I realized a couple of other kids had Vocaloids too. One was a girl called Rachel, she was a maths genius and an overall cool person, her Vocaloid was one of the originals too but unlike Miku, Luka was very timid around the younger boys as the pathetic morons were horny little devils to say the least. If anyone knew Megurine Luka, it was obvious she was eye candy to most people who saw her.

The only other person to own a Vocaloid in the school was Tyson, a bit of a nutjob, usually says the most inappropriate things at the most inconvenient times but also an overall cool guy. His Vocaloid is Big Al, he might as well be an exact copy of Tyson, all the girls were attracted to him but unlike Luka, he absolutely loved the attention. We all hung around together during the free time we had between lessons. I had other friends too, but they felt uncomfortable around the Vocaloids for some reason.

My other friends, Richard, Keiran and Christopher, myself included, decided to join the UNSC Marine Corps when we were all close to the eighteen year old mark. Miku didn't take the decision well at first but she finally came around. And so when we were shipped off to a training camp during the summer of 2558, a couple of months after the New Phoenix incident, the UNSC approached Crypton Future Media about the future of Miku under my care. I thought that I'd never see that clumsy, lovable oaf ever again.

During the summer came our surprise augmentation, turns out we had done well enough to be worth the time and money being turned into Spartan-IVs. For some reason they sent us back home after the summer at camp. Not sure how they expected us to blend in whilst being 6 foot 9 inches tall. But thankfully when I got back home and I knocked on that door, I was greeted by my parents, my grandparents and Miku.

Whilst I explained what I was allowed to talk about during my time away, my father brought in a small briefcase stamped with the UNSC insignia and handed it to me. Miku seemed really excited about said case as I undid the latches and opened it up. Inside was a small data crystal chip, about the size of an old SD card. Along with the chip was a letter explaining that the chip was the new home for Miku's database, so she could function no matter how far away from the main system at Crypton's headquarters, which all the Vocaloids got their information from. Miku told me about how the UNSC technicians explained to her that the chip could be inserted into the back of my helmet and how she would be my combat support AI.

A few weeks later we were taken to a base on the outskirts of Leeds, we were finally able to see our gear. Due to my aptitude with vehicles during my training I was given Operator armour coloured blue with yellow stripes and a golden visor. Chris, surprisingly, was given Wetwork armour due to his skill in taking down targets quickly and quietly. And I have to say, his purple and black armour looked freaking badass.

Keiran was given Aviator armour but was told he wasn't specialized in any particular area; he just shrugged and went off to the technicians to have his yellow and red armour put on. Richard was told the same thing as Keiran and just nodded as he was given his blood red Recon armour.

After the technicians helped us put our armour on we were given orders to head to a spaceport nearby for transport to a cruiser waiting in orbit. Miku must've done something because Rachel and Tyson with their respective Vocaloids were waiting at the entrance along with other people who came to say goodbye.

After Big Al had pried a sobbing Luka off Miku we were on our way to the cruiser and one slipspace jump later we arrived at our first destination. And finally after that monumental monologue in my own head we're finally up to the present."

Paul felt a fist bump against his chestplate and he slowly looked up.

"Wake up you lazy sod," he said in his strong southern English accent, "We're landing soon."

"I was awake the whole time," Paul retorted. He looked to his left in the dimly lit room and saw Miku dressed in a white officer uniform with black and gold epaulettes and a white hat with a black beak and a gold UNSC badge on the front. Her hair wasn't tied up in the twin tails she usually had and she had a pistol holstered on her right thigh. "Not what you're used to wearing is it?"

"No, but someone needs to look well-presented so that people actually take us seriously," Miku said with a smile. She might be acting serious while on the job but the same old Miku was still there.

"Now that's just harsh!" Richard said from the other side of the room as he made sure his helmet was on properly. "I just finished polishing my armour up for this mission."

Chris looked at him with a puzzled look on his face, "Yeah and it still looks like shit."

"Ah shut up. Can't this damn Pelican go any faster?"

"You didn't read anything about this place did you?" Keiran asked, "Apparently people from all over come to Almira for its natural beauty and cheap luxury resorts. Even if we are in a military ship it could be a while before we actually get clearance to land due to the air traffic around the capital."

"But we're heading to the Council spire aren't we? Doesn't that mean we should have double the priority?"

Just as Keiran was about to reply the Pelican began to descend and the pilot announced that they would be landing soon.

"Happy now?" Keiran said jokingly.

Paul stood up and put his helmet on, "Miku give us a quick rundown of the mission."

"Sure. The council has asked for assistance regarding their personal safety," Miku said, "apparently they believe certain business men are furious at the recent industrial tax changes the council have made. They've apparently had threats, as well as one man being hospitalised after an incident involving a council member. The council are hosting a dinner party in a couple of days and they've requested some additional help during the party."

"Tch. So basically we're going to be security guards for some rich blokes?" Richard groaned.

"In a very simple way, yes you are. I suppose I could pretend to be the only daughter from a rich family on a different planet, whose father is thinking of investing here."

"And hopefully get information on what's going on and who might be planning something," Keiran added.

"Exactly."

The Pelican settled down on the landing pad high up above the city. The spire towered above the city, other vehicles were flying around above and below the pad and other tall buildings could be seen in the distance. Outside the city were beautiful green tropical forests stretching for miles.

The rear doors of the Pelican opened up and the four Spartans and the Vocaloid stepped out. They were greeted by a slender looking man in what seemed to be a bell boy uniform, the large baggage trolley behind him confirmed it. He was surprised as he saw the four armoured soldiers walk by, he was about to speak to one of them when he turned round to see Miku stood in front of him.

"Could you please tell the Council we'd like to see them?" she said in a stern but high pitched tone. The bell boy just nodded and Miku went to catch up with the rest of them.


	2. Chapter 1 - The Dinner Party

**I wanted to get right into some action, let me know what you think and of course! Enjoy**

**Pablo signing off!**

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A servant led the five of them into the hall where the party was to take place. Three of the eight council members were stood there with the organisers discussing the layout of the tables and the schedule for the night. They seemed too busy to notice the group enter the room. Paul stood up straight behind them with the others around him.

"Councillors?" he said sharply. The men jumped at the sudden intrusion and were freaked out even more by the sight of Battle Rifle in Paul's hands. "Spartan Team Orion reporting for duty."

One of the younger councillors regained his composure and spoke, "We requested some well-trained soldiers but this is just something else," he said in a cool manner. "Though I don't know how you'll fit in tonight without arousing suspicion."

"Tonight? I thought the party was in a couple of days?" Richard said suddenly.

An older, slightly fatter man, clearly annoyed by Richard's outburst stated, "We changed the date so that we can get everybody we invited here. Sorry we skipped the introductions but you took us by surprise. I'm Councillor Brandston, this young man is Councillor De Cruse and this here is my old friend Councillor Manaro."

"Sorry Sir. I didn't mean to startle you." Paul said. "I'm Spartan Foulston, the yellow guy is Spartan Leivers, purple armour is Spartan Marshall, that red guy is Spartan Compton and this is Hatsune Miku."

The oldest of the three councillors slowly walked up to Miku, his cane clicking as he approached her. He bowed and went to take her hand, "It's a pleasure to meet such a lovely lady," Manaro said smoothly, his hand went straight through Miku's arm.

"Sorry I forgot to mention that Miku is a Vocaloid. It usually freaks people out at first." Paul noted. "Anyway do we know how this place is going to be set out yet?"

"Yes its already set up, we were just discussing finishing touches," said De Cruse.

"Give us a couple of minutes to discuss things and we'll get back to you with a plan of action."

The Spartans inspected the hall for a few minutes before huddling together in a group.

"So, got any ideas?" Paul asked the others.

"I have," Chris started to explain his plan, "You see those pillars over there. They've got nice sized alcoves that look like they're for suits of armour. It's a long shot but we could have two of us stood in here, monitoring the party and the other two outside as doormen. That way we could give Miku people to try and get information out of if we think they're suspicious."

"Wait so you want two of us to stand completely still for the entire party?" Keiran questioned.

"I could easily do it. And you're proficient with a sniper rifle are you not Richard? And don't snipers have to stay still for up to days at a time?"

"Yes I guess I could do it," muttered Richard.

"Any one got any other ideas?"

"Looks like we're sorted for tonight then," said Paul happily. He walked over to the Councillors and discussed the plan with them. He then came back to the group. "Looks like they're fine with it."

Miku suddenly looked around for an exit.

"What's up with you?" Keiran asked.

"I need to find something nice to wear!" she said in a distraught tone.

"I'm sure one of our female councillors could help you," reassured Brandston. Miku bowed thankfully to them and ran out of the room.

"Alright guys let's get ready for tonight, remember to load your weapons with stun rounds. We don't want people to think the Council is ordering us to kill people," Paul ordered.

Later that night people started to fill the streets of Almira's capital as the city sprung into life as the clubs and other establishments opened up to the tourists. Limousines pulled up outside the steps to the venue as high ranking officials, well established business men and celebrities arrived for the party. Paul and Keiran stood at the door and demanded to see the guests invitations before letting them in.

"We've never had this much security before, is the council that scared?" said one man as he handed his and his partners invitation to Paul.

Paul thought for a moment before replying, "Due to the tension built up between the UNSC and the Sangheili because of the Covenant Remnant, we can't take chances with anybody's lives."

He handed the invitations back and the couple quietly walked in. Inside there was cheerful classical music playing from speakers hidden around the hall. All the women were dressed in long ballroom gowns and the men all wore designer suits and tuxedos. Christopher stood as still as a statue, like he was meant to, with only his pistol on a magnetic lock on the rear of his belt to keep it out of sight. Across the room from him was Richard in exactly the same pose. Councillor Brandston was leading a group of people around the room towards Chris.

"This is a gift from a friend of mine," Brandston said as he gestured at Chris, "It's a concept of prototype armour they're working on for those Spartans, very top secret." There were impressed murmurs rippling through the group. "He was able to send me this suit and the other one on the opposite side of the room and seeing as it's a special occasion I thought we'd get them out to put on show.

"It's a terrifying piece of kit isn't it? Speaking of which you don't think it's a bad idea having those two killing machines outside?" mused one of the guests.

"Not really, I like to believe they're still humans on the inside even though I've never seen their faces."

Well said councillor, Chris said to himself. In another part of the room he saw Miku looking around the hall. She had her hair done up in an elegant bun tied with a white silk ribbon with half of it left to cascade down her back elegantly. She wore a light blue sleeveless dress that went down to her feet with a white ribbon tied round her waist. Chris gave her the details of the man who had questioned Paul and Keiran's presence, he seemed like he didn't want them there for some reason. He was also on the lookout for a couple Paul had noticed on the way in.

Back outside, Keiran ticked the last guest as being here.

"Looks like that's everybody," Keiran said as he threw the list onto the small table behind them.

"Notice anybody suspicious?" Paul asked.

Keiran shook his head, "Did you?"

"Only a guy with his wife, he seems to be concerned about the amount of security. Seeing as that's all we can go on, I gave his details to the others."

"Guess we just have to wait for a breakthrough."

A group of men walked past, probably on their way to one of the nightclubs, when they spotted the Spartans.

"Ah great, now we have to deal with a group of drunks," Paul muttered. The men stumbled up the stairs towards them. They didn't seem to realise that the guys were actually there.

"Guys!" one of the men slurred, "Get me a picture with one of these statues!"

His friends directed him to the "blue one" and Keiran suddenly started moving and covered the camera with his free hand. The owner of the camera blurted some incoherent outcry as the others panicked.

"Sorry guys," Paul said as he started walking slowly down the stairs to make the group back off. "We're gonna have to ask you to leave."

"I don't take orders from a robot!"

"Just walk away and we won't have to take it any further."

Luckily the group heeded Paul's warning and set off on their way, "Well that was easier than what they show on TV."

Keiran nodded in agreement as he peeked through the window at the party inside.

Miku kept an eye on the couple as she made her way around the room, doing the task she had clumsily assigned herself was hard enough as it was without arousing suspicion by walking through people. Suddenly the middle aged man who Chris had spotted appeared out of nowhere.

"My, my. What is a young girl such as you doing in a place like this?" he said softly. Oh great, another one. Miku bowed courteously.

"Me?" she said with a giggle, "My father gave me his invitation, he was too busy to make it which is a shame as he really wanted to see what this planet had to offer."

"Ah, the daughter of a business man? You may want to tell your father to tread carefully if he invests here."

"Why? Is it because of the high taxes?"

"Yes, that money grabbing bastard Manaro proposed the idea to the rest of the damn council and of course they took it."

"Is nobody doing anything about it?" Miku asked before sipping her drink. People assumed it to be wine she was drinking and had asked her about it before. Little did they know it was actually just fruit juice she had been drinking all the time.

"Well," the man whispered, "Can you keep a secret?"

Miku nodded. "Well myself and a few others here have planned to get rid of Manaro."

"Really?" Miku gasped, finally she was on to something, "Who's in on it?"

"I'm not exactly going to tell you that. Unless… you feel like helping?"

"What would I have to do?"

"Well that man and his wife over there have a gun; it's hidden in the woman's handbag. If you could lead Manaro to a place where they have a good line on him, they could shoot him and it would be over with."

"What if they're discovered?"

"We planned for that. The man over in the corner there has a blade coated in poison. If they miss he'll be the backup plan."

"Okay I'll help, as long as I don't have to do any killing. How about if I lead him over to that suit of armour? If the couple stand by that suit of armour they could get a clean shot at him."

"Good idea, I'll tell them what to do and you get friendly with Manaro."

Miku nodded in agreement moved through the crowd to where Councillor Manaro was entertaining some guests with an amusing little story.

Richard watch the couple carefully as they walked around, the woman seemed to be clutching onto her handbag quite a bit. How much longer was he going to have to stand like this?

"Guys," Miku said through the TEAM COM channel. "I've found something big. I need you all to be ready. The target is Councillor Manaro, the couple Paul saw earlier have a gun in the woman's handbag."

"I knew it," Paul said triumphantly.

"They also have a man with a knife ready in case the couple fail. And the man I was just speaking to, the one Christopher marked is the mastermind. I've made up a plan already, Chris, I'm going to lead Manaro over to you, watch out for the knife man and move when needed. Richard, the couple will be stood near you getting ready to shoot, restrain them before they can do anything. And one of you guys outside will need to find a different way in and get ready to get hold of the master. The other will stay outside in case they try to escape. Notify me when you're ready and I'll start leading him over."

Richard wink with his right eye to send a message saying he was ready. Paul and Keiran looked at each other for a moment before Paul said, "You go inside, and I'll wait out here." Keiran nodded and set off to find an entrance.

A few minutes later messages from the rest of the guys being signalled Miku to put her part of the plan into action. She began to converse with Manaro and slowly led him over to where Christopher was waiting. Richard saw the couple fiddling with the handbag and he sprang into action. He stepped off his perch and snatched the handbag, scaring the living daylights out of the couple at the same time, and grabbed the woman by the arm. The man stumbled away before leaving his wife and making a break for the door. Keiran came out of a side door and grabbed hold of the leader's wrists put him on the floor, the man shouted abuse at Keiran as the latter knelt over him, barely feeling the kicks to his back. The husband of the woman exploded out of the front door, stunning Paul for a moment as he ran down the steps.

"Oh no you don't!" Paul said as he fired his pistol at him, the man convulsed for a moment before falling down the rest of the steps when Paul got to him he was unharmed but thanks to the stun rounds, completely incapacitated. Citizens looked on in shock as they saw a huge figure pick up the man and carry him back up to the entrance.

A man crept up behind Manaro under the cover of all the commotion, sadly for him, Chris spotted him. Chris stepped down from his perch and punched the stalker hard in the stomach, before he could even recover the purple and black hand was round his neck and smashed him against the wall. The blow knocked the man out and left a small crack in the wall. Richard struggled with the woman as she tried to wriggle free of his grip.

It felt like a day waiting for people to calm down, the guests finally stopped running round like headless chickens when Richard fired a shot from his pistol into the ceiling.

"Everybody just calm down!" he shouted, the woman still trying to escape at the same time. "Give up love, you aren't getting away."

Keiran picked the leader of the group up, "I assume you guys know why we've restrained you?"

"Get off me you damn freak!" the man hissed, he then proceeded to spit at the yellow Spartan.

"We're taking you into custody for conspiring to assassinate Councillor Manaro, you have the right to remain silent."

"You haven't caught all of us you know!"

The Spartans looked at each other, who could the missing person be?

"Oh really, tell us!"

"That girl, there, the one with the weird hair!"

Paul put the unconscious husband on the nearest table and went over to Miku who was sat down on a chair, acting distraught. He knelt down next to her and gave her a pat on the head. Needless to say the leader was confused.

Paul and Miku looked at him, "Oh sorry," Paul said, "She isn't actually the daughter of a rich bloke, just our good friend."

The man looked like he was about to explode, the rage showed on his face, he certainly wasn't happy about being betrayed like that. Sirens could be heard from outside as the UNSC branch of the police pulled up outside. Armed officers rushed in and relieved the Spartans of the conspirators, the sergeant in charge briefly spoke to the Councillors before saluting and following his men out of the door.

Councillor Manaro stood up to make an announcement to the remaining party guests, the Spartans lined up towards the back of the room, "Dear guests, I apologise for the commotion here tonight, I assure that now all is dealt with we can get back to what we were doing. Fireteam Orion." The Spartans looked over at Manaro. "You are dismissed; I'll talk to you in the morning."

The team saluted as one and left the quiet room, the only noise were the booming footsteps as they left. They had clearly made an impression.

"Now what are we meant to do for the rest of the night?" asked Richard, his voice echoing through the corridor.

"I don't know!" Keiran replied irritably. "Where on Earth was our suite again?"

"We're not on Earth."

"Oh shut up Richard."

Chris slid the keycard through the lock, the door unlocked with a small click. "Whatever happens," he said as he stepped inside, "I want to see more of this planet."

"Agreed," Paul added, as he led a sleepy Miku to the bedroom. "I'll be with you guys in a minute."

Chris sat down in front of the large panoramic window that overlooked the south side of the city, towards the ocean. The city below was lit by vibrant colours with vehicles flitting about like mechanical fireflies in the distance. Richard sat on the leather couch and removed his helmet before taking the pistol from its mag-lock and disassembling it whilst looking out the window from time to time.

Paul returned from the bedroom, "She out cold," he said with a smile. "Good lord, Richard! Get that scraggy afro cut."

"Says 'spiky up top, short on the sides' guy," Richard retorted as he felt his curly black hair.

"Better than the buzz cut guys."

"Hey mine isn't that short!" Keiran said in his own defence.

"Well, whatever. I'm going to get some rest, I have a feeling our work here isn't done. You guys better have some too."


	3. Chapter 2 - A Violent Reaction

**Finally finished this chapter! Irritating but important A-level exams have jumped into the firing line of my attention recently. But now I have loads more free time to keep writing this story, regardless of however many people actually read it xD**

**Also because I'm so shoddy at coming up with names, message me with ideas for characters whether they're Spartans, Vocaloids, or any other people. **

**Pablo signing off!**

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Allamheim rose over Almira's busiest city, the capital went about its usual morning routine as cars packed the highways, commuters and tourists crammed into the mass transit systems. Richard looked over the scene from the large windows of the room, Almira felt strange to him, the shorter days, the large moon that did a full orbit every two days and the distant star that Almira accompanied. The slightly lower gravity was something he enjoyed though, even though he was more than capable of doing a range of things from walking to all out sprinting in his full set of armour, it was a relief to have the weight reduced by even a little bit.

"Hey stop acting like you're in deep thought," Paul quietly spoke, "The councillors want to see us now."

"Yeah yeah I'm coming."

The walk down to Councillor Manaro's office was a quiet one, workers watched as they walked past. The four Spartans entered the room where all the action had happened the night before, Manaro and a UNSC officer were conversing in the centre of the room.

Manaro greeted the Spartans with open arms, "Ah Spartans, how are you doing on this fine morning?" before any of them could reply he gestured towards the officer, "This is Colonel Berkley of the Almiran Defence Force, I'll let him take over from here, good day."

"Alright, Fireteam Orion isn't it?" he asked authoritatively, "Since your success detaining the conspirators at the party last night, all of the ring leader's credits have been withdrawn from his bank account and transferred to an unknown source. We believe that this guy may have 'friends' that are deep within his pocket. In other words, we believe that they may retaliate when they find out that their main source of income has been locked up."

The briefing went on for another half an hour, each one of the Spartans was assigned a sector of the city to patrol, Richard and Keiran were assigned the north east and north west sectors, Chris was ordered to observe the west side of the city and Paul was assigned the south resort sector. All were highly populated areas that could be targeted. Colonel Berkley dismissed the Spartans; they saluted in tandem and set off. Paul headed back up to the room.

Paul slowly opened the door and poked his head through. "Miku? You awake?"

Miku's head popped out from behind the bedroom door. "What is it?" she asked sleepily.

"I'm patrolling the resorts in the south. So basically we're going to the beach and I think you deserve some off duty time, so get some civilian clothes, maybe a hat and whatever else you need."

Miku's face lit up before disappearing back into the room. Paul paced backwards and forwards for ten minutes before Miku finally came out of the room. She was wearing a white summer dress with a straw hat and her hair tied up in the usual twin tails.

They left the council building and found their way down one of the long high streets towards the beach. Tourists and citizens alike looked warily as Paul walked by, Miku happily skipping along beside him.

"I hope I don't make them too worried," Paul said quietly, Miku looked at him for a moment.

"Maybe they're just freaked out by your size?"

"Well you don't blend in much either."

"At least I'm not armed to the teeth," Miku stuck her tongue out at him. Paul just shrugged and carried on walking. He could hear people whispering to each other as he walked by, they sure looked like a strange couple compared to the rest of the people around them, a girl with long bright turquoise hair and a seven foot tall super soldier. No wonder they'd get funny looks, _I would attract attention like this on my own,_ Paul thought. Suddenly, something happened Paul thought would only ever happen on Earth.

"Oh my god!" somebody screamed. The Spartan instinctively looked around for trouble. "It's Hatsune Miku!"

A young girl ran out towards Miku but stopped as Paul turned to look at her. She started to walk away before Paul said, "Go ahead, I'm not gonna do anything."

Tentatively she walked towards Miku, who suddenly gave her a big hug. Obviously the girl didn't feel it but she was ecstatic anyway.

"I didn't expect you to meet fans all the way out here," Paul said as he looked around.

"Ar… are you actually Miku?" the girl asked.

"Of course I am," Miku cheerfully replied.

"I have been a fan since my mother showed me your songs! Wait does that mean that…"

"What?"

"That… that guy is your master?" the girl said quietly.

"We don't like to use the word 'master'. He doesn't order me about, we're more like companions."

"So you're the one who forced her to join the army?"

Paul seemed taken aback by the accusation, "Since when did I force her to join me?"

"Look I don't see why fans are so worried about me! I can look after myself, I'm not some little kid like everybody thinks I am and even if I was in trouble, I have the best person I could have watching over me," Miku trailed off.

"I'm sorry; I shouldn't have said that," the girl said apologetically.

"It's okay, I'd be getting much more hate if I was still on Earth," said Paul, "We've got to go Miku."

"Sorry but could I at least have a picture, if it isn't too much trouble?"

"Sure!" Miku said happily. The girl and Miku took a picture together they exchanged some words and then went their separate ways.

"Well that was unexpected," Paul noted.

They walked along the promenade right at the top of the beach, the glistening water was filled with people having a nice day out by the beach and having a great time. Miku pestered Paul into stopping at a bamboo beach bar to buy her a drink.

"Hey do you sell drinks for Vocaloids here?" Paul abruptly asked the bartender. He shook his head before rushing off to serve another customer. "Well then I'll have a summer fruit smoothie."

The bartender quickly made him a drink and placed it on the counter. Paul pulled a small device from his belt and scanned the drink before handing it back to the bartender, "I'd like you to have it."

A duplicate of the smoothie appeared before Miku. Paul left her to enjoy her drink as he set off for the eastern end of the resort.

The commercial district of the city encroached into most of Christopher's sector, the streets were packed with shoppers, most of which were tourists rushing to buy last minute gifts for friends and family at home, Chris slithered through the crowds with the stealth skills that had earned him his armour. From where he was, the west side of the resort was a few miles down the road in front of him but he was approaching the edge of his sector. A single Spartan patrolling a large area by themselves was a big thing to ask, it seemed as if people expected way too much from the Spartans, they were quite efficient, the records can prove it but some people just didn't seem to understand the fact they were still humans. Chris scanned the edge of the rooftops for any activity, wait, _did I just see somebody up there? _He forced the thought to the back of his mind, but he couldn't shake the feeling that someone or something was following him.

Paul arrived back at the bar, Miku looked at him angrily.

"What?" he asked, his arms in the 'what did I do?' position.

"Take advantage of a girl's love for smoothies why don't you?" She pouted.

"I can't just stay here, I have a job to do you know."

Before Miku could reply, a deafening explosion came from the other end of the resort. The two of them looked round to see a column of smoke billowing from behind some buildings, Paul sprinted off towards the west where the smoke was coming from, Miku slowly followed.

"Chris you there?" he shouted into the radio microphone built into his helmet.

"You saw that explosion too?" Chris replied, "I'm about ten minutes away from the source, these crowds aren't helping."

"I'll be there soon."

Paul rounded a corner and stopped as he surveyed the devastation. Rubble was strewn all over the street; unrecognisable chunks of meat were dotted around too. The blast seemed to have originated from a hotel lobby. Paul could hear people in agony and others crying for help, a fire was raging in what seemed to be the only entrance into the ruined lobby. He stepped carefully through the rubble, the smoke obscured his vision even with the help of his helmets advanced optics, another cry for help came from within the lobby. Forcing his way through the flames he made his way over to a person crawling away from the flames, they were badly burned and trailing blood, as he got closer he realised it was a young man. Paul's shields glowed as they reflected the heat from the flames.

"Stay still!" he shouted as he knelt down over them. Sirens could be heard outside.

The young man rasped something incoherent. Paul carefully rolled him onto his back, there was a large piece of shrapnel embedded in the his stomach, trying to minimise contact with burnt areas as much as possible he tried to wrap his arms around them and picked them up. Paul looked back towards the entrance, he couldn't risk the flames again, especially with the man in his grip. A rock smashed one of the far windows, Paul took his chance and stepped backwards through the window, shielding the man as he did so. The familiar sound of heavy footsteps notified Paul of Chris' arrival as he handed the wounded man over to the emergency crews. Chris nodded solemnly as he approached.

"What's the situation?" he asked.

"It's a mess in there. Doesn't seem to be many survivors, but I think there are still some wounded in the area."

"I think the emergency crews can deal with the wounded out in the street."

"Guess that means we are most suited to going in the hotel."

"Damn right, as soon as you find somebody get them out."

"Was just about to say the same thing to you!"

The two of them ran back into the lobby, the faint glimmering of their shields was all that could be seen from the outside. Over the course of the next hour the two of them aided the fire brigade in rescuing several people from the burning building. Whilst carrying somebody down a clear staircase, Chris found a blood stained note, it seemed to have been place in the unconscious woman's pockets. After the fire was finally put out and a final search of the place brought up no survivors, Paul, Miku and Chris gathered by a fire engine. Their armour had been smothered in black soot and the shield generators finally had a rest from trying to maintain a barrier.

"All those people and only twenty three survived!" Paul said angrily.

"How could somebody do such a thing?" Chris said quietly.

"Whoever they are, they are getting a beating into next year from me."

"I also think we might have a lead. I found this on somebody, looks like it was placed there."

"What is it?" Miku asked as she examined the tattered piece of paper.

"Well it's a piece of paper, pretty obvious, but seriously I don't know who or what it's from. It just has this weird symbol on it."

Paul snatched it and looked at it closely, "My guess is it's probably a mercenary group, like Manaro said, the guy probably had some friends. They'll probably try to release him somehow."

"Let's not jump to conclusions. We should meet up with the others and get this note to Colonel Berkley."

"Agreed, let's get going."


	4. Chapter 3 - Payback Time

**I should really have got this out quicker, ah well you can't help it some times.**

**Not really much to say this time round apart from, enjoy!**

**Pablo signing off!**

* * *

Later that day a convoy of Warthog jeeps rolled out of a military base close to the capital. It consisted of five standard Warthogs equipped with heavy machine guns a couple of troop carriers and a single gauss Warthog. Fireteam Orion was split into two hogs with Paul driving a standard hog with Miku in the passenger seat and Keiran on the machine gun and Christopher driving another hog with Richard on the machine gun plus a bomb strapped into the passenger seat.

"Why did we get stuck with this damn bomb anyway?" Richard asked as he scanned the treeline for movement.

"I don't know," Chris replied calmly, "Just keep that turret ready for when shit hits the fan."

The convoy travelled along snaking roads through the dense jungle until it ground to a halt. The driver and passenger of the lead vehicle jumped out to inspect the road ahead. The gauss hog gunner rotated the turret back and forth warily. Paul leaned out of the side to get a better look at the situation as he put the jeep into neutral. From behind he could hear Chris arguing with an impatient Richard as the final Warthog pulled up behind them. The turret whirred quietly as Keiran rotated it around.

"I don't like this," He said. Paul said nothing as he put the Warthog back into gear. Somebody called out and the leading Warthog exploded violently, sending the wreckage cartwheeling into the air. An injured marine fell to the ground as his head burst in a red mist. The remaining turrets roared into life, sending a hail of bullets into the trees around them. Muzzle flashes from the trees replied with a hail of bullets towards the convoy. A bright streak of light illuminated the battle field as the gauss cannon fired, blowing out a clearing in the trees.

"What's going on out there?" Berkley's garbled voice came through the comm network.

"The mercs ambushed us sir!" Paul replied. "We've lost the lead vehicle and are out in the open."

"You need to get moving, the bomb will destroy everything within a kilometre of your position if it takes too much damage."

"Roger that sir," Paul switched to the frequency the convoy was tuned in to, "Fireteam Orion will continue to the objective, keep the enemy busy for as long as possible!"

A chorus of acknowledgements came back, "Ready Chris?"

"You bet I am!"

Paul pushed the accelerator all the way to the floor and steered round the Warthogs in front of them. Bullets smacked into the bodywork and the Spartans, causing their shields to flare. Keiran returned fire with the turret sending spent bullet casings everywhere. The amount of enemy fire whittled down to nothing quickly, they'd probably already sent back news of the escaping hogs, so the quiet wasn't going to be round for long. Almira's host star began to descend below the treeline, turning the sky a fiery orange. The road quickly deteriorated and increasingly uncomfortable, Miku clutched onto the handles either side of her seat tightly as they were furiously knocked about.

"How far from the objective are we?" Chris asked over Team Comm.

"We're about two kilometres away," Miku replied, "I'm surprised we haven't met an opposition yet."

"Don't jinx it for Christ's sake!" Keiran exclaimed.

Suddenly the jeep swerved violently to the right and skidded to a stop. Paul looked over the side and sighed in relief. Chris stopped behind him.

"Why'd you stop?" he asked.

"I think I found a minefield guys!" Paul said with a hint of excitement in his voice.

"I don't like that tone mister," Miku said warily. Paul put the Warthog into gear once again and put his foot down. He weaved a path through the minefield, expertly manoeuvring the vehicle between mines and spun in to a spot a small distance away from the field on the other side, waving at Chris to cross the field.

"You're insane, you know that right?" Keiran said as he rested on the turret.

"Would you prefer me any other way?" Paul joked.

Chris slowly rolled up alongside them.

"Are we going to just sit here all night or what?" Richard asked from the back of the hog.

"Oh my god!" Chris shouted, "You seriously are the most impatient person I've ever had the displeasure of meeting!"

"Well are we?"

Chris just sighed in frustration and began to drive on. Paul followed him along the winding jungle road. They drove for another hour before blips on Chris' radar caught his attention, before he could say anything bullets were dissolving against their shields and ricocheting off the bodywork. Heavy machineguns tore the treeline to shreds, Richard and Keiran probably weren't aiming, but who could give a damn at the moment.

"Hey they sent a welcoming party!" Paul calmly spoke as he overtook Chris.

Miku fired her assault rifle, it wasn't going to do anything but it made the enemy duck and that was enough. "I suggest we get out soon," She said as she held onto her helmet as they flew over a crest, "The base should be just over this next hill."

Sure enough as they thundered over the crest of the hill the base came into sight. It didn't look like much at first glance but underneath the façade of a shanty town was a large tunnel network housing the base of operations of the mercenaries who had detonated the bomb earlier in the day. Paul smashed the hog through a chain-link fence and skidded to a stop next to a building, which was noticeably larger than the rest of the town around it, he dismounted along with Miku and they stacked up against the wall as Keiran covered them with the turret. Chris pulled up moments later.

Paul kicked down the door and entered the building, Miku close behind. Chris made a break for the door with the bomb hooked under his arm. Richard abandoned his turret and dived for the door, quickly followed by Keiran. The group cautiously got onto a lift and began to descend into the tunnel network. An explosion was heard from above as the small bombs fitted to the Warthogs detonated, blocking the entrance.

"Right, that's the first objective over with!" Keiran said, "Now where is the power plant?"

"Why don't we just follow the signs our hosts have generously put up for us?" Richard replied sarcastically, pointing at a sign with _power plant _written in bold.

"I didn't see that."

The group followed the signs through the extensive tunnel network, gunning down any resistance they saw along the way, the vibrations from the generators caused the lamps hanging from the ceiling to sway gently as the group got closer and closer. They entered the room, killing anybody stupid enough to show themselves, Keiran started to snoop around the generators before taking the bomb from Chris' arms.

"I guess we'll leave him to it," Paul said with a shrug, "but just in case. Make sure he doesn't do anything stupid Miku."

A bullet grazed along the side of the generator.

"I won't do anything stupid if you guys can cover me," Keiran called out as he fiddled with the bomb. Enemy troops were approaching the main entrance to the power plant, firing at the Spartans standing out in the open, as the Spartans ran for cover either side of the doors.

"How long do you think this is gonna take Keiran?" asked Paul as he fired his Battle Rifle into the rushing enemies.

"It's hard to tell, I'm going to have to take the casing off of the bomb because I can't…"

"I asked for an ETA not a lesson on bombs!"

Keiran sighed, "Fifteen minutes at least."

The mercenaries took cover behind crates, crenulations in the wall and anything else that could potentially block bullets. Richard expertly hit one enemy after another with his glistening black DMR, the muzzle flash reflecting on his cobalt blue visor as he fired. One soldier ran across the dead zone between the two sides, he was felled a moment later by Chris' Battle rifle, the barrel smoking from the repeated firing.

"Let me do it myself!" Keiran's voice blurted out suddenly via Team Comm. A faint retort was just audible as Miku argued with him. The fire fight went on for some time; the amount of enemies began to thin out quite rapidly until the hallways descended into silence. Chris stood up and rested his rifle on his shoulder.

"Where did they go?" he asked. Keiran walked out from behind the generators.

"Who cares? The bomb is set to blow whenever the hell I want it to," he boasted.

"Not without my help!" Miku said angrily. On that note the arguing resumed until Paul stepped in.

"Are you just going to sit here and argue or are we leaving?" Paul sighed.

Richard and Chris cautiously stepped out into the hallway, checking their corners as they went; they were followed by Paul, Keiran and Miku. The entire place felt deserted, giving the place a horrible creepy feeling, the only sound was the faint thudding of their armoured boots as they crept through the deserted hallways. Eventually they came to an emergency staircase to the surface.

Richard turned to Paul, "I don't think that can take our weight."

"How dare you! I have never been so insulted in all my… yeah you're probably right."

"So what do we do?" Chris asked.

"Climb the stairs obviously."

Chris face palmed, "But we're too heavy."

Paul ignored him and began to slowly climb the rickety stairs. The metal groaned under the weight, Miku subconsciously followed him. A few moments later the pair was at the top of the stairs, much to everyone's surprise, Paul waved at the others to signal them to come up and then walked down the corridor at the top. The others slowly made their way up the stairs, Keiran got to the top first with no problem, followed by Chris. Suddenly the stairs began to groan, Richard started to climb the stairs quicker, the stairs began to fall away beneath Richard's feet as he carelessly stomped up the stairs. With one last push he leapt for the platform, he hit the side and clung on with all his strength, he began to slip. Two pairs of armoured arms grabbed hold of his arms and hauled him up onto his feet, the stairs clattering loudly beneath them.

By the time they caught up to Paul he was kicking down a door and walking right out into open ground. A shot smacked into his head, the shields absorbing the impact, making him stumble. Keiran ran out and fired back at the enemies. The others ran out as Paul recovered and returned fire. Keiran pointed to a small alley to the right. The others nodded in agreement and they broke from their cover and sprinted for the alley, returning fire as they went. As they ran into the alley Richard dropped a grenade by a fuse box as he ran past, the explosion caused the communication pylon to collapse into the alley, blocking the entrance.

"We should find a vehicle depot," Miku said as she caught her breath. Richard and Chris ran ahead to scout out the place.

"How far do you think we'll need to be before we can detonate the bomb?" asked Paul.

"About one kilometre," Keiran replied.

"Wait. 'About' one?"

"Depends on how the tunnels affect the explosion. But we should be relatively safe."

"Guys we've found transport!" Richard said over the radio. Paul, Keiran and Miku all ran the way Chris and Richard had gone, there was a crudely painted troop Warthog ready to go. Chris was sat in the driver's seat with Richard in the front passenger seat. The others climbed into the back, troops flooded out of a building and opened fire on the Warthog. Chris put the hog into gear and slammed the throttle down. A crunch was heard as he ran down a couple of soldiers, they sped past the soldiers and smashed through the gates. Mercenaries were pursuing in other crudely modified Warthogs Paul and Keiran fired back at them, killing the driver of one and causing it to plough into a tree, two others were still giving chase.

"Five hundred meters!" Miku called out.

"You better be ready with that detonater!" Richard shouted.

Chris slammed on the brakes and drifted the Warthog through clearing off the road. A battered Mantis walker opened fire, accidently hitting one of the pursuing hog and blocking the other one from following. Heavy cannon fire obliterated tree trunks, missiles annihilated patches of jungle, the heavy clunking of the legs got quieter as they pulled away.

"They have a Mantis?" Paul said.

A tree exploded nearby.

"It's amazing what you can buy with a crap ton of money." Richard said sarcastically.

"One kilometre!" Miku called out.

Keiran flicked the switch on the detonator.

"Did it work?" Richard questioned.

Keiran shrugged and tried the detonator again. Chris pulled up alongside a small cliff overlooking the base.

"Well, you messed up!" shouted Richard. Keiran turned to him. A brilliant white light erupted out of the ground within the base, cracks radiated out from the light and flames roared upwards, lifting the ground with it. The shockwave buffeted the Spartans, pushing the Warthog backwards slowly. Miku started being pushed back too until Paul grabbed her arm, she gripped his arm tightly with both arms. The lightshow dissipated, smoke and dust was all they could see for miles. As the dust and smoke settled, all that could be seen was a huge hole where the base had once been.

"Are you going to withdraw your previous comment?" Keiran said mockingly.

"I guess that's a mission success,"Chris said.

Paul nodded, "Let's call for a ride back; I'm not getting in that thing if you're driving!"


	5. Chapter 4 - Memorial Service

**Argh procrastination! Sorry for the short chapter and long wait. I'll be getting on with the next chapter ASAP!**

**Pablo signing off!**

* * *

The mostly empty monorail pulled into the station. The doors slid open and Fireteam Orion disembarked, the station was as lifeless with the occasional civilian hurriedly getting out of the way of the Spartans. The team left the station building into the sun baked street near to the place the bomb was detonated a few days ago. The team had been given no time to relax after turning a huge swathe of the Almiran landscape into a wasteland, the Almiran defence had requested that each one of them write out an entire mission report which had taken some of them a couple of days to finish. Miku gloated as she instantly wrote and sent hers off right in front of them.

The group slowly walked down the street in silence, they followed a path which opened up into a small plaza where a memorial had been erected in honour of the civilians who had died in the blast. A concession of friends and relatives of the victims were gathered around the statue. The statue itself was an out of scale carving of Almira and its moon, etched from different pieces of stained marble creating the colourful orb which sat upon the white marble plinth where the names of the victims were etched for all eternity. The plaza overlooked the bay where people relaxed on the beaches and swam in the crystal blue water.

The team bowed respectfully as they made their way to the cliff edge. The team looked out towards the ocean and unholstered their battle rifles, taking a firing stance, aiming into the distant sky, they fired three bursts in perfect synchronicity before turning and resting their guns against their shoulders, holding them by the stock and saluted before marching to the rear of the plaza where they would stand for the rest of the ceremony.

"Guys," Richard whispered, "Where are we heading after this?"

"First off," Paul started, "You could be a bit more respectful and secondly, didn't you read the orders sent to us this morning?"

"Of course not, I was still writing my report."

Paul sighed heavily and shook his head slightly.

"Well seeing as you are such an idiot, I guess you'll just have to wait and see."

"Aw come on guys, tell me."

The men just kept silent, ignoring Richards pleas.

"We're serving aboard the Infinity." Miku said suddenly.

"_The _Infinity?" Richard said in surprise.

"Yes, once we are aboard the Pillar Reborn we'll be jumping to Infinity's location and transferring over. The Pillar Reborn will then join the fleet as an escort ship."

"You had to ruin the fun didn't you?" Paul said solemnly. Miku looked at him and smiled.


	6. Chapter 5 - A New Home

**A pretty long chapter is this one, I couldn't decide on where to end it due to the amount of things happening. But at least I've finished this chapter. Now to use my silly messed up thought process fueled by music to plan the next part of the story!**

**Pablo signing off!**

* * *

The Pillar Reborn came out of slipspace with the usual shuddering felt on all slipspace worthy ships. The Infinity could be seen in the distance, its gigantic Forerunner engines giving off a faint blue glow. In the hangar of the Pillar Reborn workers were busy sorting large boxes of equipment to be transferred to the Infinity. There were four boxes roughly seven foot long, each had a name from Fireteam Orion on a metal plate bolted to the side.

Keiran was sat on one of the large sofas that were dotted around the observation deck, in his hand was a data pad upon which he was firing in lines of code and shaking the thing in frustration. Paul and Miku were sat in front of a terminal attempting to get a connection back to Earth, Chris was just staring out into space silently.

"Man, am I glad to be out of that armour," Richard said as he entered the room in his off duty clothing over his neural suit, as were all the other Spartans. He rested on the back of the sofa and looked over Keiran's shoulder.

"What are you doing?" he asked. Keiran shoved the data pad under his jacket as he heard him.

"Nothing," he said sharply. Richard tried to wrestle the data pad from Keiran's grip until he got a clenched fist in the shoulder.

"Ok ok, just calm down."

Richard's attention now turned to the ship looming in the distance. "So that's our new home?"

Nobody answered him.

"Hello? Richard to Orion?"

"Finally a stable enough connection," Paul said triumphantly, "Wait, Miku what are you doing?"

"Checking my Facebooks obviously," she replied playfully. Paul threw his arms up and looked at Richard in disbelief. "Holy moly!"

Paul turned back to see what Miku was surprised about, his eyes widened at the sight.

"How on Earth have you got over a thousand notifications? We've only been gone a couple of weeks," he said.

The surprises weren't over yet, Miku clicked on the notification icon and scrolled through them, they were all from Luka.

"I think she's missing you a bit."

"Ha they're not all from Luka!" Miku shouted.

"Really?"

"No, there's one from Big Al apologising for all Luka's messages."

Paul and Richard burst out laughing.

"Just wait until she notices you're online," Richard mentioned. Sure enough there was a torrent of messages from Luka as she asked loads of questions. Miku sighed and connected herself to the terminals internet and sat down on the sofa, her eyes glazed over as she communicated with Luka.

Paul and Richard messed about on the terminal for about fifteen minutes before an announcement called them all to one of the hangars where there Pelican was waiting. The guys got up and grabbed their jackets and personal items.

"Miku?" Paul said, clicking his fingers in front of her face, "We've got to go now."

Miku slowly came around, "Sorry, I was a bit overwhelmed by Luka to respond."

"We guessed it would be something like that," Richard added.

The Pelican cycled up its engines as the team entered the hangar; they boarded their Pelican, sat down and strapped themselves in for the short trip. Their armour was stored in the boxes anchored to the floor. The door shut and the Pelican lifted off the deck, the pilot increased the engine output and they flew out into the cold vacuum of space.

The flight was quite short; there were a few snippets of conversation, mostly from an excited Richard which were stifled by Chris and Keiran. Within moments the Pelican had landed aboard the Infinity. The rear door slowly opened to show a huge, busy hangar with a large number of workers hauling weapons and other equipment around. A worker Mantis stood by the Pelican, Fireteam Orion took in their surroundings as they walked down the ramp. Workers shuffled past as they released the anchors holding the containers and began to wheel them out of the Pelican, where the Mantis picked them up with its heavy lifting arms and carried them to the armour bay.

A small terminal rose up from the floor and a hologram appeared. The hologram was a young man, orange in colour who looked like he was from an era before spaceflight, he put his arms behind his back.

"Fireteam Orion I presume?" he asked.

"Yes?" Paul replied.

"I'm Roland, the ships AI. I'm detecting a data stream from one of you, similar to an AI."

"So?"

"Before we go any further I'd like to clear up what this signature is."

"Sorry, it's probably my Vocaloid, Miku."

Paul lifted his arm to reveal Miku hiding. She cautiously moved over to the terminal and bowed to Roland in greeting.

"Ah, that will be it. Japanese built AI. That's fine; I was just making sure we didn't have any rogue Prometheans joining us. Sit tight Spartans, someone will be along shortly to take you to S-Deck."

With that Roland disappeared. The team stood where they were for a couple of minutes, taking in the busy atmosphere of the hangar. Chris spotted somebody approaching them.

"Hey," he whispered to Richard, "Look at that hottie."

A woman wearing a neural suit and gunmetal grey trousers approached them she was taller than the workers she passed by and had a stern look on her face. Chris sprang into action.

"You seem lost?" he said smoothly.

The woman sighed, "Not another one."

"Pardon?"

"I guess you guys are Fireteam Orion?" she asked. They all nodded.

"I'm Commander Sarah Palmer, follow me to S-Deck please."

The team chuckled at Chris' failed advances and followed the commander out of the hangar. As they walked through the busy corridors they saw other Spartans wandering around, as well as marines and some civilian personnel.

"You guys arrived just a bit too late," Palmer said as she led them through the ship. "Plus we have some logistics and staffing problems thanks to you."

"What do you mean by logistics and staffing problems?" asked Keiran.

"I mean we haven't got an operator for you and we need to find some empty beds on S-Deck for you to sleep in."

"Operator?" Richard asked Chris quietly.

Palmer sighed, "Somebody who plans your missions and guides you through it while you're out there."

Palmer stopped outside a guarded door and handed each of them an ID tag.

"These are your ID tags, show it to the guards and they'll give you access to the armour bay, where your armour has been stored and where you will put it on. Spartan Foulston, your Vocaloid will be granted access whenever you are."

Palmer held her hand to her ear for a moment before addressing the team. "Roland has found some empty rooms for you, they are near the rear but we can't really help that. I'm needed elsewhere but Roland can help you get around. I'll be in touch when we have an operator for you guys."

Richard looked around in disbelief, "So she's going to just leave us here?"

"Just be patient," Paul said, "I'm sure Roland will help us out."

Miku went into her trance like state. Paul pointed at her, "I told you."

She snapped back into real life, "Roland uploaded a layout for the ship to my chip so that we can find our way around."

"Well can you take us to our rooms then?" Chris asked.

Miku nodded and started walking off down the corridor, the guys followed her. The armour bay door opened and a Spartan pushed his way past Keiran. They were wearing jet black Orbital armour, with red highlights and a red visor with a skull etched into it.

"Do you mind?" Keiran said angrily.

The Spartan looked at him and just laughed as he carried on walking.

"Ignore him, he doesn't have many friends as it is," a woman spoke. The group turned and looked at her. She was wearing a neural suit underneath a plain vest and baggy combat trousers.

"And you are?" asked Paul.

"Spartan Sergeant Meilin Qiuyue," she held out her hand, Paul shook hands with her, "Leader of Fireteam Vixen."

"Vixen? Interesting name for a fireteam."

"So is Orion. You guys are the only team named after a constellation seen from Earth. Is there a story behind it?"

"We just thought it sounded good," Richard added.

"Well in case you were wondering, Vixen is a women only fireteam. Well see you around."

Miku looked at Paul angrily.

"What? I'm just making friends." He said.

Miku said nothing and carried on leading them to their rooms.

Commander Palmer walked onto the bridge where Captain Lasky was reviewing the orders sent to him by Fleetcomm.

"Commander, I hear the ship that joined our fleet came with some extra Spartans," Lasky said.

"Just a bunch of kids," Palmer said loathingly.

"They're still Spartans and an asset to the Infinity."

"Spartans or not, we don't need people acting like jackasses in the middle of a warzone," she sighed, "I still need to find an operator for them as well."

"Isn't there one candidate who's available?"

"I'm not choosing her."

"Why not? She's a veteran, she has already had her Spartan IV upgrades and she has experience."

"I don't care!"

"Sarah, why won't you choose her?"

Palmer didn't answer.

"If you don't tell me why, I'll send a request for her myself!"

"It'll be like Halsey all over again."

"This Spartan isn't a war criminal Sarah! She aided in the defence of multiple colonies and even Earth. I read her story, you really think she'll run over to the Covenant and betray us, after what happened to her?"

"That's not the point."

"Oh I see. You just don't want her on this ship because she'll have the same command privileges as you!"

"That's not …."

"Don't lie to me!"

"Fine, but what makes you think she'll lead a group of Spartan IVs?"

"It says in her file that she's one of the ones who didn't develop sociopathic symptoms."

"If you read her file, then you know how she behaved after that incident."

"I know, but I trust her. We can only try."

"Fair enough, but if she steps out of line I'm kicking her off this ship myself."

Lasky sighed in relief, "We're heading to the nearest colony soon. I'll send off request and we'll pick her up there."

Palmer nodded and slowly walked to the exit. Roland popped up as she left, he looked at her as she left and smiled.

"I haven't seen the Commander look like that before, it seemed like, I don't know. It seemed like she felt defeated," Roland said happily.

Lasky smiled at Roland's joke, "Roland I need you to do something for me."

"What do you need Captain?"

"I need you to send off a request for Spartan Lieutenant Laura Smith. Tell them we'll pick her up when we arrive at Haumea."

"Sure thing Captain."

Paul entered his assigned room, it was pretty basic, but then again they were on a military starship so he couldn't expect any luxuries. There was a personal terminal at a desk, a small window looking out into space, which would only be open when the ship was on the lowest alert levels, and a small sofa. Off to the side was a bedroom and small bathroom. The colour scheme was standard for UNSC ships, a mixture of white and metallic grey walls.

Miku stood in the corridor, looking around for another door.

"Paul," Miku quietly spoke.

"What?" he turned to see her looking at her feet.

"Where is my room?"

He scratched his head for a moment before peeking into his own bedroom.

"It's here."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you sleep with me in my room."

Miku's face turned red, "W…w…with you?"

Paul looked at her before realising what she meant, "Argh! Nothing like that! Look!"

Miku poked her head into the bedroom, the room had been hastily rearranged to accompany a second bed; there was a bedside table between the two beds in the cramped room with barely any room to walk around due to the size of them. Miku sighed and laughed off her embarrassment as she sat on the sofa. Paul shook his head as he plugged her chip into the terminal and looked out of the window.

"I don't know what the Commander was on about," said Richard as he peered in, "The engines aren't even that loud."

"Actually, even though we're near the rear of the ship we're still about a kilometre away from the engines and we're at the end of S-Deck," Miku noted.

"Come to think of it why is it called S-Deck."

"Use your brain genius! What are all the personnel we've passed been?" Paul asked.

"Spartans?"

Paul nodded with a mocking expression.

"Oh I get it, Spartan Deck. That would explain why I heard some people going on about a Spartan town," Richard chuckled; he then went back to his own room.

Suddenly Roland's voice blared out through the corridors, "All hands, prepare for slipspace jump."

"I guess we're on the move," said Paul as he sat down and waited for the inevitable shudder as the ship entered one of the seven dimensions of the slipstream.

When Keiran woke up the ship had come out of slipspace and was heading for Haumea, the viewport shields had been opened and he could see a huge green orb of swirling gas. The Infinity was passing by the outer planets of the system on its way to Haumea.

Keiran got up and went to his personal terminal, he proceeded to copy all the data from the pad Richard had tried to steal from him onto his terminal, his experiment was too far through to throw away now.

"Fireteam Orion? I've got some news for you," Palmer shouted down the corridor, she didn't sound happy. Keiran got up and stepped outside his room to see the brunette walking towards them. Chris, Paul and Miku stood out in the corridor, saluting as she approached. Richard poked his head out to see what was going on.

"What is it Commander?" Chris asked. She looked at him and he gave her a friendly smile.

Palmer sighed, regretfully she spoke, "We've found you an operator. I personally don't agree but the Captain insisted."

"When will we meet them?" Paul asked.

"Command thought it would be best to pick them up while resupplying above Haumea."

"Anything we should know?" Keiran added.

"I'd take it easy if I were you, your operator hasn't been in a strict military unit for a while."

The wind was gentle, the only noise was the rustling of the trees and chirping of birds, a civilian ship landed in the spaceport in the plains below. The sun was beginning to set on the horizon. A lone figure stood in the field, gazing up at the sky. An old couple and their young grandchild watched the figure from the porch of their farmhouse for a moment before slowly making their way towards them. The grandchild ran back inside and came back out with a rose pink helmet in her hands, the grandmother held her hand as they walked through the field. The old man stood next to the figure, who towered over him.

"You'll miss your flight if you dawdle any longer," he said solemnly. The figure turned to him, their glistening green eyes locked with his, strawberry blonde hair down to the neck flowed in the wind.

"If I do they'll just send another one," the figure replied, the silky soft voice with a slight coarse note to it cut through the air.

"It's been a while since you've worn that."

The figure looked down at their rose pink C.I.O armour marked with white stripes.

"Not since they handed it to me."

The grandmother and the young girl approached, "I know how much you want to stay here dear," the old woman spoke, "But you're too young to be spending the rest of your life on this farm with us. You know we'll never forget you."

The figure looked at their left arm with contempt.

"Are you still thinking about the others?" the old man asked. The figure nodded. "Hurry up and go, they need you up there, Laura."

Laura turned and gave the old man a weak smile.

"Laura, Laura!" the young girl shouted. Laura knelt down and took the C.I.O helmet from her hands.

"Thank you Stacy, look after your grandparents and be a good girl."

Stacy put her arms round Laura's neck and hugged with all her might, "I'll miss you," she sobbed. Laura wiped the tears from Stacy's eyes.

"I'll miss you too."

"B…but when I grow up, I'll go up into sky and find you and we can be like a family again."

Laura nodded and stood up. The old woman gave her a hug and reached up to kiss Laura on the cheek.

"Thank you for looking after me Deborah."

"No need to thank me, enjoy your life dearie and don't worry about us."

"Come on, I'll drive you down there," said the old man.

"Thanks Maurice."

Maurice and Laura climbed into pickup truck, the old engine belched into life and it pulled away, leaving a cloud of dust behind, Deborah and Stacy waving them goodbye.

Maurice and Laura pulled up outside the main entrance to the spaceport twenty minutes later. A ship roared overhead as it came in to land. Laura climbed out and slung her small travel bag over her shoulder, clipped her helmet to her belt and took a deep breath. Maurice nodded at her and shook her hand.

"Make us proud, Spartan," Maurice said with a smile on his face as he looked up at her. People stared at them as they passed by. "As if they're noticing you," Maurice chuckled. Laura laughed and said her farewells. Maurice stood there and waved at her until she disappeared into the building.

Inside Laura strolled over to the ticket desk, ignoring all the attention she was getting. The woman at the ticket desk widened her eyes as Laura approached.

"Hi, could you direct me to the ship that's stopping off by the Infinity please?" she asked as nicely as she could sound. People started muttering about her, Laura heard the word Infinity passed around a couple of times.

"Well?"

The ticket woman snapped out of her initial shock, "Sorry, it's a bit of a shock seeing one of your type around here," she said with nervous chuckle, "The ship is parked at gate sixty four. If you head down the departure lounge it should be about halfway down."

Laura smiled, "Thank you."

The wait in security felt like a millennium, people in front looked back nervously; people behind her didn't seem to want to talk either. As she finally got to the security post she threw her travel bag onto the conveyor belt. A security officer stopped her.

"Excuse me but could you hand over your weapon to be scanned too," he asked nervously. People waiting in the queue looked on in anticipation. Laura snapped the Magnum off her right thigh and placed it on the conveyor belt too. She ducked down and walked through the detector, it buzzed as expected and she waited for her things on the other side. The officers let it go, but grabbed her pistol before she could collect it.

"Give me that," she said.

"Sorry ma'am but it's loaded with live rounds," said the officer in charge of the item scanner.

"Well of course it is you idiot!" Laura raised her voice. "I'm not going to shoot it."

The head officer gestured at him to give it back, the man cautiously reached out with the Magnum. Laura swiped it out of his hand and locked it to her thigh again and continued on her way. Everybody behind sighed in relief.

Laura briskly walked down the departure lounge, muttering the gate numbers as they went past. Suddenly she crashed straight into somebody and sent them to the floor. She knelt down to help the man up but he tried to crawl away.

"Sorry I wasn't watching where I was going," Laura said, the man kept backing away. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

The man got on his feet and ran off. Laura sighed and got up, _why was I expecting anything else_. Carrying on with her brisk walk towards the gate Laura arrived just in time to board.

The woman at the gate smiled, "I guess you're the reason why we're docking with the Infinity."

Laura let out a nervous laugh, "Thanks, here's my ticket. Also could you thank the pilots for doing this for me?"

"Sure I will."

"Thanks."

Letting out a sigh of relief, Laura sat down in her seat and waited for the ship to take off. The starship lifted off the ground and turned eastward, Laura looked out the window and caught one final glimpse of her 'foster' home before the ship accelerated into orbit. She looked down at her robotic left forearm, wiped a speck of dirt off of it and took a deep breath.

The ship picked up speed as it broke free of the planets gravity, in the distance the Infinity could be seen, Laura looked on in silence at the mighty warship. Other passengers conversed and gasped in awe at the sight. Within moments they were flying alongside it until the two ships were travelling at the same speed.

Fireteam Orion watched as the docking lasers locked and the umbilical walkway extended out to the small ship. Alongside them stood Palmer, her arms crossed with an un-amused look on her face.

The stewardess walked down the aisle to Laura, "We're docked with the Infinity."

Laura stood up and nodded respectfully before making her way to the airlock, it slid open and she walked across the bridge between the two ships. Laura paused for a moment before entering the Infinity airlock; she looked down through the grating at the planet below. Taking a deep breath, she left her peaceful memories behind and prepared herself for a second life in the UNSC.

Fireteam Orion saluted and stood to attention as the airlock door opened up. They looked on as their new colleague stepped on board, Laura looked at them sternly, and she then turned to Commander Palmer who was the only one not standing to attention.

"By the fact you aren't saluting I guess you're a commander?" Laura said dryly.

"Lieutenant Smith," Palmer addressed her, "Welcome aboard the Infinity. Commander Sarah Palmer."

Palmer held her hand out reluctantly. Laura was a foot taller than the other Spartans, she gripped Palmer's hand firmly with her robotic hand, "I guess these kids are under my command?" she asked.

"Uhhh… yeah, this is Fireteam Orion they just transferred to the Infinity as well."

"Which one of you is the sergeant?"

The group looked at one another for a moment, "We don't need a sergeant," Paul said boldly.

Laura shook her head, "Well from now on you are the sergeant, what's that thing stood next to you?"

Paul looked at Miku who quickly disappeared into her chip, "that was Miku, my Vocaloid or combat AI or whatever you want to call her."

Laura looked disgusted by the statement. "Well, keep it under control and we'll have no problems."

"Lieutenant the Captain wants to speak with you," Palmer said, trying to dispel the unpleasantness of the conversation. Laura took one last look at the team and followed Palmer out of the room. Richard sighed before consulting the others, "Is it only me that thinks our new operator is a bit of a bitch?"

"I don't think she likes me very much," Miku stated in a dismal tone as she appeared again. Paul gave her a reassuring pat on the head, "She just needs to get to know you that is all," he replied in a consoling manner.

"On another note!" Richard cried out, "Why on Earth did she suddenly assign you as our leader?"

Paul shrugged, Chris patted him on the shoulder, "I'd rather take orders from him than from you," he chuckled. Richard opened his mouth to retort.

"Anyway, first impressions aside," Keiran interjected, "I say we go get something to eat. I'm sure Lieutenant Smith isn't as bad as she appears."

"Agreed, let's wait until we actually work with her before we jump to conclusions," Paul said.

The group went to the Spartan mess hall, with Keiran pigging out while the others discussed a vast array of topics through the hour they were there, they met other Spartan fireteams as well as some marines and civilians. Afterwards they made their way to the observation deck to relax whilst the resupply operation carried on. Keiran led them down to a certain room so that he could view the resupply ships coming and going, much to everyone's annoyance. Paul stopped for a moment and peaked into one of the other rooms. Laura stood by herself in the large room, holding her shimmering metallic arm with her natural one, she gazed out at the planet and sighed. Paul watched for a moment before moving on to catch up with the others.


	7. Chapter 6 - Priorities

**Finally a new chapter and some seriousness! I'm thinking of making the Infinity cross into another universe at some point but I'm not really sure when that will be.**

**Pablo signing off!**

* * *

Roland appeared on the edge of the starmap in the centre of the bridge, "Captain, I have intercepted a distress call from the colony on Daneeion."

Lasky walked over to his communications officer, "Patch it through Roland."

"Anyone who receives this message, we're under attack by these… things! Requesting immediate assistance, they're killing everybody!"

"Lieutenant Thomson, send a message to Fleetcomm, after the resupply operation is complete the Infinity will make full speed for Daneeion and assist the colony in any way possible."

"Aye Sir!" the communication officer replied.

* * *

Two hours later the Infinity sailed at full speed for the slipspace insertion point at the edge of the system. Roland's voice blared out through the ship as he gave the usual slipspace speeches as well as ordering all Spartans to suit up.

Paul and the others walked quickly through the ship. Personnel were running to their posts, marines were heading to the hangars and armouries. Showing their ID tags to the guards the doors opened up and they made their way inside. Spartans were in their respective armour banks, engineers aiding them in putting on their armour. Palmer walked out of the control room in her white Scout armour.

"Fireteam Orion. Put your suits on in the room over there and then make your way to your armour bay."

"Yes ma'am!" Paul said as himself and the others made their way into the changing rooms.

Inside were rows of lockers, each one with a Spartans name on it. The team opened their lockers and pulled out their bodysuits, carefully they put on the suits, linking them with the neural suit beneath and making sure they were completely sealed.

"Any idea of what's going on?" Richard asked as he adjusted the collar around his chin.

"Nope but I'm guessing it's important due to the fact we're all in a rush to be combat ready," Chris said whilst stretching his arms.

"Maybe it's the Covenant," Keiran suggested.

"It can't be, we've been living alongside them for nearly five years now," Richard replied.

"I meant the Storm Covenant, the enemy who the rest of the guys on the Infinity have been fighting since the ship was deployed after New Phoenix."

"Whoever it is, I'm sure we'll get orders soon," Paul said.

The room fell silent as Laura walked in already in her armour. The Spartans stood to attention, and she waved at them to relax. There was an awkward silence, Miku who had been quiet through the whole thing hid behind Paul.

"We're heading to Daneeion," Laura said quietly, "Fireteam Orion's mission is to aid in the Governor's evacuation from the planet. Report to hangar B-45, your Pelican will be waiting for you."

Laura didn't wait for confirmation of her orders; she turned to leave but stopped at the door. Looking back over her shoulder, she said coldly, "Remember, this is a stealth mission. Don't fire on anything unless it fires back."

After Laura left, Richard let out a sigh, "And we still don't know who we're fighting."

Paul picked up Miku's chip and made his way out of the locker room. Walking down the centre of the room, he spotted a team of engineers at an armour bay with his blue and yellow armour ready in the fitter. Paul planted his feet in the foot holds; the engineers activated the fitting sequence. Robotic arms fitted the armour around his feet, whilst he put his hands through the gauntlets and held onto the handles on the large ring he was stood on. The gauntlets closed around his arms and robotic torque wrenches fastened the pieces together to make a solid piece around his arm. More robotic arms fitted and fastened his leg armour in place and then the ring rotated him around and tilted him backwards. An arm lifted his chestplate into position whilst another positioned his back armour. The pieces locked together on his shoulders and under his arms, after that some arms fitted his shoulder guards onto the armour and a final one lowered his helmet onto his head. Nearby the others were going through the same process, whilst being monitored by engineers.

Paul stepped off the machine and nodded quietly at the men who had watched over the process. He inserted Miku's chip into the back of his helmet and walked out onto the central walkway to wait for his team.

They made their way through the ship to the hangar where their transport was waiting for them, picking up weapons and ammunition on the way, loaded with Battle Rifles and DMRs as well as Richard's sniper rifle and Keiran's Spartan Laser they boarded the Pelican and waited for the transition back into real space.

"Anybody know anything about this Daneeion place?" asked Richard, slamming a magazine into the sniper rifle.

"I heard that it was one of the first colonies where Covenant and Humans coexisted peacefully after the war," Keiran said.

"So who are we shooting?" Chris inquired with a concerned tone.

"Before you kids even think of asking. No I don't know either," Laura interjected, transmitting from the operations room. "Brace yourselves; we're coming out of slipspace."

The Pelican shuddered for a moment before its engines began cycling up. The rear hatch closed and the Pelican lifted off the hangar floor before flying out into the void. Miku fastened her breather mask securely, the atmosphere of Daneeion was toxic to Humans and Covenant alike, which meant breathing equipment was required for use to work outside.

The Pelican entered the atmosphere, leaving a streak of red hot air behind it as the pilot brought it low down to the ground. Flying just thirty metres above the ground, at nearly two hundred miles per hour, the Pelican thundered over the crest of a hill to reveal a small city. Buildings were aflame, vehicles and houses abandoned; the team watched the scene of devastation pass by underneath. The Pelican slowed down and came to a stop, hovering in a small space between the buildings, close to the central tower. One by one they dropped out onto the ground below, Keiran leapt off last and signalled to the pilot who then left the area.

"Lieutenant," Paul said, "We're on the ground."

"Roger that," Laura replied, "Make your way to the tower in the centre of the city, your target is trapped near the top of the building."

"Any info on who to shoot yet?" Richard asked with a sarcastic tone.

"No."

"We're on our way now," Paul said quickly, "Richard, Chris, you guys take point."

Richard and Chris lead the way through the quiet city, followed by the others with Keiran bringing up the rear.

"For a city in the middle of being attacked," Richard started, pausing to climb over a pile of rubble, "it's rather quiet."

"I haven't seen any dead bodies either," Chris added.

"Maybe they all got saved?" Miku suggested. Chris and Richard looked at her for a moment before continuing.

"I doubt it."

"Orion!" Laura shouted suddenly, "Something is heading your way!"

The team went into firing stances, scanning the area for movement.

"Get into the building! This is a stealth mission remember!"

The team hid in the ruined building for a couple of minutes. A group of civilians ran out into the open, chased by hulking metallic creatures, more of the creatures appeared in front of the group, surrounding them.

"What are those things?" Richard asked, observing one of them through his scope. The creature had a huge body; it's back stuck out into a point, orange glowing lines running along its body. One arm ended in a huge orange blade while the other accommodated a weapon that looked Forerunner in design. There were other smaller dog-like ones, growling at the civilians as they all closed in. A human woman held her children tightly as one of the creatures loomed over them, a Sangheili civilian stood between the creature and the group, his arms outstretched.

"We've gotta do something!" Keiran whispered.

"Stay where you are!" Laura shouted back through the radio. Paul gestured at them to be quiet, he turned to Richard and signalled at him to open fire. Richard nodded and took aim, he placed the creature in front of the Sangheili in his sights. He fired, the high calibre round thundered through the air towards the creature and struck it in the side of the head, making it stumble. The rest of the team ran forwards firing into the band of creatures destroying multiple dogs and taking down a couple of the larger ones. Paul ran towards one, his fist coiled back ready to punch, he launched himself into the creature only to fall onto the ground as the creature appeared nearby. Getting back up, he found the creature jumping towards him, ready to plant the blade in his chest. He spun, drawing out his knife, dodged the blade and planted his own blade in the side of the things head. The creature screeched before disintegrating, leaving only a glowing orb of light behind.

One of the dogs leapt onto a civilian, the man kicked and screamed as the dog clawed at him. Without thinking Miku ran up to the pair and kicked the dog off before firing at it with her assault rifle, killing it. She blinked in surprise for a moment, unsure of what she'd just done before running on to fight the rest of the enemies.

Richard carried on firing at the creatures from his vantage point. Keiran tackled another large one to the ground and smashed his rifles stock into its face multiple times. Chris ran through the chaos, casually bringing down the enemies that were unlucky enough to face him. The brutal battle ended with the remaining creatures teleporting or scampering away.

"Is everybody all right?" Paul asked.

The civilians slowly nodded.

"Sergeant!" Laura shouted, "What on Earth do you think you're doing?"

"Sorry Lieutenant," Paul said, looking over towards Richard, "Compton's finger must have slipped."

"Bullshit, I saw you on the live feed. I'm not an idiot."

A group of soldiers appeared out of nowhere, they called everybody over, "There's an evac point a few blocks away from here!"

The terrified civilians flocked towards evac point with the soldiers, one asked the Spartans to accompany them which they refused.

"Anyway, let's get on with the mission," Laura sighed.

As the team walked towards the central tower Chris spoke, "You know we're in big trouble when we get back, right?"

"Would you have preferred it, if we had left those people to die?" Paul asked, Chris didn't reply, "A life is the most important thing a person has, the punishment is worth it."

Richard kicked down the door and poked his rifle through the gap. It was clear, the team entered the building and made their way to the elevators. Keiran and Richard argued about which way to go, the elevator was faster but they didn't know what state it was in. But taking the stairs would take longer.

"Just choose a route and go!" Laura shouted, she was clearly getting pissed off with the guys.

They took the elevator up to the top floor, where the target was said to be trapped. Metallic thumping echoed through the corridors, as the team carefully approached the room, they found one of the large creatures trying to break down the door. The team opened fire and knocked on the door as the creature disintegrated. The doors opened up to a cowering governor and his two bodyguards.

"Spartans?" the governor said, "Well it's about damn time!"

"Are you the governor we've been sent to rescue?" Keiran asked.

"Well of course I am! What is with you lot anyway? And that thing!"

"Do you want us to get you out of here or what?" Paul asked, his temper rising as he insulted Miku.

Chris put a hand on Paul's shoulder, "Let's just get him out of here, we're in enough trouble as it is."

"Right then, let's go."

In the elevator Paul relayed a message to Laura.

"A Pelican is en route to this location," Laura said, "it should be clear but I'll keep you posted along the way, and don't mess this up."

The group made their way through the deserted city once again, there wasn't much resistance apart from a pack of the dog like creatures and before they knew it they were on the Pelican and leaving the planet.

* * *

The Pelican settled on the hangar floor and the hatch opened, the governor and his bodyguards disembarked, followed by Fireteam Orion. Laura quickly walked towards them; the team stood to attention and saluted. Laura punched Paul in the face, knocking him down.

"How dare you disobey orders!" she yelled. Paul took off his dented helmet; Keiran helped him to his feet.

"You of all people should know what it's like to watch people die!" Paul shouted back, "You were in the Human-Covenant War weren't you?!"

Laura went to punch him again, but he caught her metallic fist and pushed her away.

"I obeyed orders!"

"Don't you care at all when people die in front of you? Are you that cold hearted?"

Laura stopped, taking in what Paul said. Paul pushed her out the way and left the hangar, the rest of the team followed.

"Paul are you alright?" Miku asked as she caught up to him.

"That bitch packs a punch that's for sure."

Roland appeared at a terminal in front of them. "Sergeant, I watched your little argument back there, pretty tense stuff. But that's not why I'm here."

"What do you want Roland?"

"Doctor Glassman and myself have been tasked with studying more about the Prometheans that appeared on this planet."

"Prometheans?"

"Did nobody tell you? I apologise, after the destruction of Requiem the ship has been pretty busy."

"Well what did you want?"

"We were wondering if Miku could help us in our studies. She's already had experience with the Prometheans, there's no doubt she may have accidentally probed the data purge due to the instability of them."

"Sure, if that's ok with her," Paul turned to Miku. Who after a moment of careful thought agreed to help.

"We'll see you at the lab."

"Sure, I'll drop by and leave Miku's chip later."

Roland disappeared and the team discussed what to do.

"I'm just going to head back to my room until we're called out again I think," said Keiran.

"I dunno about you guys but I'm hungry," Richard said, rubbing his stomach.

"Me too, let's get something to eat bro," Chris replied.

"Well I need to get this helmet fixed, I'll meet up with you guys later," Paul added. The others nodded and they went their separate ways.

* * *

Laura sat in her room, pondering her thoughts in silence. Paul's sudden outburst sank deep into her mind, refusing to leave.

"I'm not cold hearted, I'm not cold hearted," she repeated clutching her robotic arm. Tears splashed against her armour as she remembered that day; the Brutes, the glassing, the ship she called home going down in a huge ball of flames, the shot that took her arm off, watching her closest friends and the one she loved die.

"I just want to protect them," she whispered to herself, "I don't want them to die."


	8. Chapter 7 - Visitors from Other Worlds

**Oh lordy this is a long one xD. Daneeion is turning out to be a nasty place to live isn't it. Enjoy!**

**Pablo signing off!**

* * *

"Well the rebreather system is almost impossible to recover, the visor has cracked along the left side and the shield emitters have all shorted out," Damian said as he inspected the damaged helmet, "Whatever hit you did a lot of damage. I'm surprised you made it out with just a cut."

Paul leant back against the railing, "Well you can thank Lieutenant Smith for that."

Damian smiled, throwing the helmet on to the table, "We're going to have to request a new helmet for you. But the next delivery could be weeks away."

"So I'm out of action then?"

"I'm pretty sure we have some standard issue Recruit variant helmets, gold visor, data chip port," Damian typed away on the keyboard, "Yeah we've got some."

"Is it blue?"

"Does it matter?"

"I'd prefer blue."

"There is a couple. I've sent a request, it'll be here soon."

"Thanks."

"What happened between you and the Lieutenant then?"

"We disobeyed orders, saved lives and she hit me as we left the Pelican."

"Damn, she's a strict one isn't she?"

"If all the Gen 2 SPARTANS were like that I would have rather die than use my common sense."

Paul stood up straight, picked up Miku's chip, "Well I've got to go, I'll be back later to pick up the helmet."

"Alright, I'll see you then."

* * *

Lasky watched the planet slowly rotate, the swirling storm clouds covered most of the planet, something strange was happening. Palmer stood next to him in silence. In the last few hours clouds had covered more than half the planet, conditions beneath were treacherous, comms had difficulty reaching surface units, Pelicans couldn't fly below the clouds and there had been garbled reports of acid rain and hurricane force winds.

"Who is still on the surface?" Lasky asked.

"Fireteam Vixen and Hecht, they were making their way out the city when the storm formed, the transports didn't have a chance," Palmer said.

"Any news on their location?"

"Not yet, we suspect they are holed up somewhere near where we last had contact."

"I guess we'll just have to wait until the storms clear and see if we can find them."

Roland appeared on the holo-table, "There is something we could try."

Palmer and Lasky turned round.

"Tell us Roland."

"Well, if we get one of our communication relays down there, we would have a good strong signal beacon beneath the clouds. There is a seventy per cent chance that it would enable us to relay messages through the cloud layer."

Palmer sighed, "Roland, how would we get it down there?"

"Well my dear Palmer, you could fly it down there…"

"Pelicans can't get through the cloud!"

"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, a Pelican could fly just above the clouds with the payload and a Fireteam, where the team would jump out with the payload and guide it down through the clouds. The added bonus of the low gravity also means they could land it using jetpacks."

"That's insane."

"Or we could do it the less fun way and have a team of Spartans in the Pelican above the clouds, get them to jump out and then fire the relay down in an ordnance capsule."

"It's worth a try," Lasky noted.

"Captain!" Palmer protested.

"Fireteam Orion doesn't seem to have anything to do," Roland mentioned.

"I'll talk to Lieutenant Smith," Palmer sighed in defeat.

* * *

"I'll pick you up later," Paul said to Miku, "Don't cause Doctor Glassman any trouble will you?"

"Will you be okay without me?"

"It's not like I'm leaving you on a different planet. I'll send you a message through my suit if we're going on an Op so you can keep an eye on us."

"Fine…"

Paul left the room and walked down the corridor, examining his temporary Recruit variant helmet. As he made his way to the mess hall he spotted Palmer down the corridor. As he got closer he also saw Laura with her.

"Get the team ready, we have no time to lose," Palmer said. She turned, Paul saluted as she walked past. He kept saluting until Laura waved him off.

"Lieutenant?" Paul asked as Laura turned to leave.

"What?" she said coldly.

"I apologise for what happened earlier," Laura's face lit up as she heard the words over her shoulder, "I shouldn't have stepped out of line."

Laura turned back to him, "Its fine, Palmer was just briefing me on our new mission, we're going to find Fireteam Vixen and Hecht."

"I thought the storm stopped us from going down?"

"Well Roland has this plan…"

"I don't like the sound of that."

"Well it's certainly bold and crazy, sounds perfect for you guys."

Did Laura just smile?

"We'll try our best."

"That doesn't look like your helmet."

"Well after that punch I had to replace it until the guys can fix it."

"Sorry about that."

"You know, you aren't too bad, for some reason Miku is afraid of you though and the others are bit apprehensive about you too."

"I'm not good at first impressions it seems."

"You should hang about with us, get to know the others."

"Maybe, anyway go get the rest and report to the hangar."

_Looks like I'll be sending Miku a message sooner than I thought._

* * *

The Pelican thundered through the upper atmosphere, the swirling death trap raged below. Richard jumped on the spot as they prepared themselves.

"I still think this is insane," Chris said as he gave the thrusters on his back a final test.

"Aw come on Chris, it'll be fun!" Richard joked.

"I didn't realise your idea of fun was jumping through several kilometres of clouds into acid rain and hurricane force winds?"

"It isn't," Richard turned to Paul, "Can we back out now?"

"Don't be such a baby," Keiran said as he fitted a brand new charge into his Spartan Laser.

"Thirty seconds!" shouted the pilot.

"Here we go guys," Paul said.

They stood in front of the rear hatch, Paul and Keiran at the front followed by Richard and Christopher behind. There was a hiss as the hatch opened up, revealing the clouds below, the pilot counted down the last few seconds and then, they jumped. They plunged head first through the sky, maintaining a close formation, the clouds below were approaching fast.

"Lieutenant, we're clear of the transport!" Paul shouted.

"Roger that, firing the capsule," Laura replied.

A streak of light appeared a moment later as the capsule screamed past, the team followed the capsule's vapour trails through the clouds. The winds tossed them about like paper, Keiran struggled to maintain his course before disappearing from sight. Paul signalled the rest to prepare to land as they left the bottom of the clouds into the rain. Keiran could be seen in the distance, his shields flickering from the acid rain. Paul, Richard and Chris fired their thrusters and landed safely by the capsule. The strong wind made it difficult for them to stand still, Keiran slowly walked towards them, losing his footing multiple times. The team began unloading the relay.

"It won't last long in this weather!" Keiran shouted, at least the short range radio was still working.

"I think I saw a building before we landed!" Chris mentioned, "We could set it up in there!"

"Lead the way!" Paul said.

Richard, Paul and Keiran carried the relay through the storm whilst Chris led them to the building. The building Chris had found barely resembled one, the walls were crumbling from the strong winds and rain, the acid burnt away most of the door controls and all the windows were blown in. Chris pried open the door and they carried the relay into the airlock, the only completely sealed room they could see.

"So much for shelter," Richard said.

"It has a roof, it will do," Chris said in his defence.

"Let's get this relay set up," Paul ordered. The building was an old warehouse, rain hissed as it slowly burnt away the roof. Keiran tapped the start-up program which extended the aerial; he then began tuning the system until he got a clear link to the Infinity.

"Lieutenant? Can you here us?" Paul asked.

"Loud and clear," she replied, "What's the situation down there?"

"It's a real shitstorm down here, we're beginning our search for Vixen and Hecht now."

"Keep me posted."

"Will do, Orion out."

Richard stared at Paul, "She sounds different," he said, "where did the hatred go?"

"It's amazing what an apology can do."

"You let that bitch win?"

"Not really, the Lieutenant isn't the bloodthirsty monster she tries to be."

"Tries? She fooled me, if it was up to me I would've requested a new operator."

"Well it isn't, she's pretty cool, I was talking to her before the mission."

"Oh dear, Miku wouldn't like that," Chris joked.

"Hah, shut up, we just spoke about the mission and I invited her to hang out with us some time."

Richard turned towards Paul in surprise, "What?!" he shouted, "I'm not pretending to be friends with her!"

"Whatever, shall we find Vixen and Hecht?"

Richard tutted and started pacing round the perimeter of the room whilst the others tested a dozen different frequencies each.

An hour went by, the storm not letting up thought the winds had died down considerably, Richard sat against the wall with Chris and Paul.

"Vixen, Hecht do you read? Please respond!" Keiran repeated for what seemed like the fifty millionth time.

"Give up Keiran, this storm is being too much of an asshole for this to work," Paul said.

A burst of static got Keiran's attention.

"Firete… Vixen… who is… how did you…?" Meilin's voice stuttered.

"Vixen? It's Orion here! Where are you?" Keiran asked.

"Orion…?"

"Clear it up Keiran!" Paul ordered.

Keiran fiddled with the aerial settings for a moment.

"Orion! You're meant to be on the Infinity!" Meilin was much more clear.

"Sergeant Qiuyue! It's Sergeant Foulston of Fireteam Orion, tell us where you are!" Paul said as he connected his comm system to the relay.

"Sorry, we're in a housing complex on the outskirts of the city."

"Are you guys alright?"

"Spartan Sethunya has a broken leg but that's about it."

"Any idea where Fireteam Hecht is?"

"They are with us, what are you going to do?"

"We'll send a message back to the Infinity then we'll head over to you."

"Okay, also something strange is happening over to the west near the abandoned science facilities."

"We'll keep an eye out."

"Roger."

"Keiran, send message to the Infinity and get ready to move."

A couple of minutes later they left the moderate safety of the warehouse and headed in the direction of the Vixen and Hecht.

* * *

The lightshow created by slipspace travel flickered around the bridge, streaks of blue flickered across the purple metal of the walls. At the centre of the bridge sat a large being, an elongated head, a mandible like jaw, a huge torso and large arms and legs. Sork' Chonchiyo exhaled slowly, he knew they would be up against the formidable Infinity but after the news of the Didact's soldiers had appeared on Daneeion it was worth the risk.

"We're almost there Shipmaster," a soft velvety voice said in Sangheilian.

"My scouts say that something is happening on the surface, get ready to descend in a Phantom as soon as we leave the void. We must get there before the Humans."

"Yes, Shipmaster."

The person turned to leave, "Aria," the Shipmaster said, "You will be fighting your own species, do you accept that?"

"I'm not one of those slavers, I swore I would free my kind from them and I will."

* * *

Alarms blared throughout the bridge as a fleet of Covenant Remnant ships exited slipspace.

"Captain! Signatures of a single Assault Carrier escorted by five Battlecruisers. They're powering up their weapons!" Roland said.

"Launch the Charons!"

"Charon Class Frigates deployed."

Broadsword fighters screamed by as they met Seraphs in the gap between the fleets. Plasma torpedoes, rapier, archer and howler missiles, left trails across the black canvas of space. The Infinity brought it's forward facing Magnetic Accelerator Cannons to bear on the enemy fleet. Ninety tons of depleted uranium smashed against the shields of the enemy ships.

Inside the science wing, Doctor Glassman was frantically strapping down all the equipment, in case of some eventuality that probably wasn't going to happen. Miku just watched him as the ship shook around them, she felt uneasy, like a phantom was nearby, haunting her.

"Miku are you okay?" Glassman asked.

"I feel like there's somebody around."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, each Vocaloid can sense one another if they are close enough I haven't felt this feeling since we left Earth."

"So you're saying that you can sense a Vocaloid nearby?"

Miku nodded.

"Wait but how far away were you when you lost the other Vocaloids around Earth?"

"I lost their presence when we got to the Jump zone near Jupiter."

"So they're in the system, I'll report this to the Captain. But how did a Vocaloid show up here? No ships should be allowed to come here. Unless…"

"You don't think that they came here with the Covenant do you?"

"Well it's hardly going to be a coincidence is it!"

"They were probably captured by the Covenant! They have to have been!"

"We'll see, I'll let you take a break, your master is down on the planet isn't he? Why not go to the Op Room and check up on him, and tell him about this feeling you have."

"Ok!"

* * *

The housing complex was just a couple of hundred metres away, a strange pillar of light could be seen in the distance, surrounded by yellow lightning arcing up and down it. Fireteam Orion reached the door moments later, Chris knocked hard against the door, which opened up to reveal a Spartan in black and red Orbital armour. He stared at them for a moment before shaking his head and leading them in. Inside was the rest of Fireteam Hecht and Vixen. Meilin got up and greeted them, she was wearing Pathfinder armour in white with a dark red secondary colour whilst her squad had Air Assault variants with an inverted colour set.

"I can't believe they sent the novices after us!" said the Orbital Spartan. Keiran sighed as he realised that it was the guy from before.

"Shut it Punky!" said another Spartan, he wore black scout armour with a white visor and stripes, he looked at the group before shaking hands with Paul.

"Sergeant Craft, leader of Hecht, nice to meet you," he said.

"Sergeant Foulston, leader of Orion. You guys alright?"

"We're fine, only injury is Spartan Sethunya over there. A piece of the roof in one of the other sections of the complex caved in and crushed her, it's only a broken leg though."

"Leivers, report our situation right away."

Keiran nodded and went away to relay the message.

Richard watched Vixen, "What's with the matching armour colours?" he whispered to Chris.

Chris shrugged, "Maybe we should have matching colours?"

"Screw conformity, we're too classy for that stuff anyway."

A bright flash lit up the building, blinding everybody for a moment. Meilin looked up to see all the clouds being blown away.

"What the heck was that?" asked Punky.

"How should we know you idiot?" said Nova, one of the other Spartans who wore black Orbital armour.

"Could it be that light?" Paul suggested.

"Possibly," replied Meilin.

"Roger that Lieutenant," Keiran turned to the others, "The Infinity is currently fighting a fleet of Covies, Pelicans will be down shortly as it seems the clouds have vanished from the entire planet."

"What?"

"Also Miku needs to speak to you sarge."

"Alright, patch her through."

The pillar of light disappeared and the shutters opened to reveal a peaceful afternoon vista.

"Paul?" Miku asked frantically.

"What?"

"Are you alright?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well the Covenant and the storm and… and"

"Whoa, calm down. What's wrong?"

"I can sense another Vocaloid!"

"What? On Daneeion?"

"Yes! I sensed them at the same time as the Covenant showed up! We need to free them!"

"One step at a time, if we see them, we'll bring them with us. Just stay safe, I'll be back soon."

"Okay, the Lieutenant says the Pelicans are on their way."

"I'll talk to you later Miku."

"Sergeant Foulston," Laura said.

"What now!"

"We need you to head to the centre of that blast. A Pelican will drop off a pair of Mongoose ATVs for you, be quick, a Phantom has been detected entering the atmosphere."

"Will do."

Minutes later a Pelican landed outside, Spartan Sethunya was strapped into a stretcher for the ride back, Orion got ready for the journey as Punky complained about them being the only ones even though Hecht was combat ready.

Keiran sat on the back of the mongoose, gripping tightly onto the handrail as Paul revved the engine.

"Hey Chris!" Paul shouted as he kept revving the engine, "Race ya!"

Without warning he took off down the road, leaving Chris to catch up, who had Richard clinging on for dear life as he almost left him behind.

As they raced down the winding road towards the centre of the explosion they saw the Pelican disappear up into the upper atmosphere, Punky was probably still complaining about them, in the distance the crumbling tops of the facility where the light originated from could be seen.

* * *

The research facility was quiet, only the purr of the idle engines echoed through the small streets. Orion team made their way to the central building, they entered through the main airlock and made their way to the exact coordinates they were given.

"Look," Chris said, "There are breaches in the ceiling."

"But I don't see any signs of Covenant," Richard noted, searching for targets through his rifle scope, "Probably damage from the storm or the blast."

"I don't think it was an explosion guys," Keiran added, "There's no blast marks or damage anywhere, it can't be a slipspace anomaly either."

"Stay quiet and keep your eyes and ears open guys," Paul interjected.

A faint droning sound could be heard, the team stopped, the sound got louder and louder as the source approached. Paul gestured the team into cover as the Phantom flew overhead, scanning the area with its large turret.

"Shit," whispered Chris, "We need to get to the centre now."

"Agreed, let's go."

Coughing and wheezing could be heard from up ahead. The team rounded a corner to find a strange looking woman on the ground without a rebreather mask on.

"Keiran pass me one of those emergency masks!"

Keiran pulled a pack off the rack nearby and tossed it to Paul. The girl had pale blue skin, hair which was a similar colour to Miku's and what seemed to be ancient looking armour. Paul put the mask over her mouth, but she resisted him and tried to bat the mask away. Paul forced her to breath into it making her breathing return to normal. Explosions were heard outside.

"You okay?" Paul asked the girl. She didn't seem to understand. "Are you alright?" Paul said slowly.

She pointed at his shoulder guard, "U…N…S…C…"

"Yes that's right, we're your friends."

"Fr…ie…nds…"

"Whe…re… am I?"

Richard called out as he saw Elites coming down the corridor. The others opened fire, gunning down two of them and forcing the others into cover.

"You're on Daneeion. We need to leave!"

"Where… is... Asmodae?"

"Asmodae? I've never heard of it."

"Sergeant!" Laura shouted through the comms, "Stop chit chatting and get out of there!"

"Cover me! We're leaving!"

Paul put the girl's arm around his shoulder and lifted her up, he was surprised to see she was almost as tall as him. The others cleared the corridor and they began to make their way outside, as they rounded a corner a group of Elites with a human like figure alongside them blocked their way.

"Is that the Vocaloid?" Richard asked. Miku frantically said yes. The figure was wearing armour similar to the Sangheili battle harnesses, a sleek domed helmet, what seemed to be thrusters on their back and legs, as well as weapons built into the palms of their suit.

"Well well well, thank you for finding our prize," the figure spoke.

Miku listened in disbelief, that voice, it couldn't be!

"A little birdy told me you're Vocaloid. Am I right?" Richard asked.

The figure chuckled, "I can sense you as well, Miku."

Miku overrode Paul's armour speakers and spoke, "Aria! Is that you? What are you doing with them?"

"Having the freedom I never had when shackled to my master! But enough chatter, surrender the prize and accept your death otherwise this is going to get messy!"

"No," Paul said quietly, "Whoever you are, you're only a Vocaloid, soft light. Plus your Covenant Remnant buddies aren't well equipped so why don't you back down."

"Shut up!"

Aria charged towards them, followed by the four Elites who accompanied them. Keiran, Richard and Chris opened fire, taking down three of the Elites, Paul settled the girl on the floor and went to block Aria who was coiling her fist back. Her fist connected with his arm, the force took Paul by surprise and he lost his footing.

"Hard light?" he pondered, how could she be a hard light hologram?

"Syphoning power from the Sanctified Clarity gives me enough power to permanently stay as a hard light projection!"

"Good," Paul said with a smile, "That means I can hit you!"

He pushed her away and pulled the Battle Rifle off his back, he fired at her as she darted back down the corridor as the last of her group died to Chris' knife.

"Damnit she got away!" Richard said.

"We'll see her again, let's get this girl out of here."

* * *

Back outside a Pelican waited for them in the courtyard, the girl tried to take her mask off again.

"Don't do that!" Paul shouted, holding the mask tightly against her face, "The air is dangerous here. This helps us to breath."

"Okay…"

They boarded the Pelican and sat back as the door shut.

"Do you have a name?"

"Na..me?"

Paul put his hand on his chest, "Paul," he pointed to Keiran, "Keiran," then pointed at the other two in turn and said their name then pointed to the girl.

"Oh… Kasamoni," she said.

Richard stood next to the pair, "Where the hell is Asmodae?" he asked.

"Atreia."

"Huh?"

"It… is on… Atreia."

"Ever heard of Atreia?" Paul asked. The others shook their heads. "Miku, you there?"

"What is it?" she replied.

"Could you try and find stuff out about a world called Atreia please."

"Sure."

The feeling of weightlessness started to kick in as they entered orbit around the planet. Kasamoni looked around in confusion as she started to float around, frantically she held on to the seat, she whimpered at what seemed like a new experience for her. Paul and Richard helped her into a seat and strapped one of the harness belts across her lap.

"Atreia doesn't show up anywhere, it's not a Human world, Sangheili, Forerunner or any other race's world. I don't think it exists."

"Thanks Miku, have you and Glassman made any progress on the Prometheans yet?"

"No, Doctor Glassman has been trying to figure out what the blast on the surface was, apparently it was similar to an event that happened twenty two years ago when Professor Johan Morten disappeared during an investigation of some mysterious readings they had recorded."

"Disappeared?"

"I don't know the details but it says that something like a slipspace rupture appeared but it was orange instead of the usual blue and that he walked into it."

"Like a portal? Is that how you got here Kasamoni?"

She nodded, "Abyss gate… Jefrurs Morten."

"What did you say?"

"He… taught… me en-english."

"Did I just hear that right?" Richard said, "This guy who's been missing for twenty two years taught you English?"

"Yes."

"Guys we're gonna have to stay in orbit by ourselves for little bit," said the pilot, "The Infinity is still engaging the enemy fleet and we're too valuable to be shot down."

"That's fine, we can get to the bottom of this while we wait," Keiran replied.

"So Kasamoni, where is this place you come from?" Paul asked.

"Well, I'm not sure but I don't think there is any place apart from Atreia after the Cataclysm or even before it."

"The Cataclysm?"

"In the distant past when the Daeva Legions fought the Balaur that lived on the outside, one of our Empyrean lords proposed a plan for peace discussions with the Dragon lords…"

"Hold on one minute! What do you mean by 'lived on the outside'?"

"Atreia was a cocoon, held together by the Tower of Eternity that connected one side of the world to the other, the Balaur lived on the outside, shunned by Aion while the Humans lived around inside under Aion's light."

"Sounds like Requiem to me," Keiran said.

"But Requiem didn't have an atmosphere on the surface, neither did it have a tower through the central axis," Paul explained, "It couldn't have been any other Forerunner shield worlds either, they were all built with the same design."

"We've never heard of this Aion, or a race called Balaur or anything like that," Richard added.

"Tell us more."

"Well, when the leaders of both sides met in the Tower, something happened which destroyed the Tower and the world split in two," Kasamoni continued, "Afterwards, Lord Azphel, one of the Empyrean Lords who survived led the surviving Humans on their side of the tower and created the nation of Asmodae, where I was born. On the other side of the tower, Lady Siel and other survivors formed Elysea."

"Do all Asmodians look like you? No offense."

"Yes, we had to adapt, when the Tower shattered our side was plunged into darkness, the rough terrain was painful to walk on and it was freezing cold most of the time. Our skin turned pale and grey from the lack of sunlight, our hands and feet turned into these claws," Kasamoni pulled off a boot and a glove, revealing pointed bony claws in place of her toes and fingers, "We grew manes to insulate us from the cold, and our eyes glow molten red when we get angry."

"What about the others?"

"The sun kissed Elyos? They had it the easy way, Elysea was flooded with sunlight from day one and there was no debris, I don't know much about them though. They didn't have to change though and still remain their pink skinned selves."

The guys looked at each other, if these Elyos people looked like normal Humans, Kasamoni might not trust them.

"Sounds like you hate these Elyos guys?" Chris asked.

Kasamoni clenched her fists, "Yes, when the rifts opened up, they were met by one of our leaders, he welcomed them but they attacked, we fought them back but ever since then we've been at war. The rifts lead us to the Abyss, where we created a fortress called Primum landing it's the only way to get into Asmodae from the Abyss and the same goes for Elysea so we've been at war ever since."

"And what are these Daeva's?"

"Asmodians and Elyos that have achieved Ascension, either through hardships or a sick twist of fate. They become demi-gods among the Human Asmodians and Elyos. I am also a Daeva. It is up to us to defend our Human brethren from the hardships of the world and the Elyos."

"So does being a Daeva come with any sort of bonus?" Richard asked.

"We are able to control the Aether, the magical lifeblood of our world. We are basically immortal. We can also fly."

"Immortal eh? Sounds interesting."

"We still die, but we revive ourselves through the Aether, but in the Abyss our souls can lose their way making it impossible to resurrect."

"Damn."

The Pelican shuddered as it powered towards the Infinity. Yellow lightning was arcing across the area where the Covenant fleet had retreated from.

"Guess we're approaching the Infinity," Chris said.

"Is there more people like you there?" Kasamoni asked nervously. Keiran took Paul to one side for a moment.

"What if we look like those Elyos she hates so much?" Keiran whispered.

"I know, we'll need to confront her about it before we land," Paul whispered back.

"Agreed."

Paul knelt down in front of Kasamoni. The others gathered round him.

"Kasamoni," he started, "We need to know you will trust us."

"I do," she said quietly.

"No, it's best to see for yourself."

Paul nodded to the others and disengaged the seal on his helmet, the others followed suit. Pulling off their helmets they revealed their light coloured faces to her, "We need you to trust us, Humans here range from white to black, from what we have gathered, we must look like Elyos to you."

"It…it's fine, if you were Elyos you would've killed me instantly," Kasamoni said with a nervous smile.

"We're coming into land guys!" said the pilot.

"Just on time," Richard laughed.

Some frantic transmissions came from the cockpit, the Pelican shuddered and spiralled out of control. Keiran pulled his way into the cockpit to help the pilot regain control. His eyes widened at the sight before them. A huge rift opened up, it looked like a slipspace jump in progress, but it's visual aspects were orange instead of the blue Keiran had seen before and it was pulling them and the Infinity in. The pilot tried to fly away from the portal. Keiran grabbed the controls and turned the Pelican round.

"We're not escaping! We might as well get ready for entry!" he shouted.

The Infinity fired its retro engines, trying to escape the pull of the rift but to no avail. From the hangar Miku could see the edges of the portal in front of the ship. She watched in terror as the Pelican spiralled uncontrollably towards the rift, tears welled up, was this it?


	9. Chapter 8 - A Whole New World

**Ahh here we go, another piping hot chapter straight out the brain oven. Umm ignore whatever I just said. As always, enjoy and I'll get working on next chapter ASAP.**

**Pablo signing off!**

* * *

A flash of bright light filled the cockpit as the turbulence settled. Keiran squinted through the glare in time to see that they were heading for a large floating rock, he reached over the pilot and steered the Pelican around the rock. He swerved the ship round another rock, thuds were heard from the cabin as the others were thrown about, another rock loomed in front of them. Keiran threw the ship into a barrel roll, smashing off the front right engine as they scraped the surface of the rock.

"Get up man!" he shouted at the inanimate pilot. Chris clawed his way into the doorway. "Pull this guy out! I need to get into the seat!"

Chris grabbed the pilot by the collar of his spacesuit and pulled him through into the cabin. As soon as the seat was clear Keiran leapt in and got his bearings. The Pelican could barely stay level or straight as the balance was completely ruined, he looked out and saw a huge spherical object, it looked like a star. Above and below it were chains of floating islands, Keiran dodged another floating rock, at either side of the lower islands were two large fortresses. He checked the systems as they left the field of rocks, no sign of the Infinity, he looked for a place to land. This was going to be rough.

* * *

Levano fired a bolt of fire at an enemy, sending them flying backwards, another lunged at him with a two-handed sword. Spinning on his heel, Levano dodge the blade and punched the person into the ground, leaving a small crater.

"Mage!" shouted one of his allies, "Get back!"

Levano launched another fire bolt and ran back to the final line.

"We're not leaving are we?" he asked.

Ralgorn looked at him, "We can't lose anymore daevas to this battle, we'll take it back soon enough."

Another soldier called out, pointing to something in the distance, Levano and Ralgorn peered out in to the rock fields of the Abyss. A flicker lightning caught everybody's attention, even the enemies were watching, a huge vortex opened up.

"An Abyss gate?"

"It's not like any Abyss gate I've ever seen! Everybody head back to the drop point!"

"What?!"

"I'd rather be in the Aetheric field of Primum than out here while that's around! Looks like the damned Ellies have the same idea."

Levano nodded and ran back to the edge of the island. The Asmodians gathered as they prepared to jump off into the safety of Primum Landing. A deafening boom echoed through the Abyss. Ralgorn turned to the source, a huge vessel bigger than anything they had ever witnessed before loomed out of the gate, it was grey and didn't look to be Balaur in design.

"By Azphel… What is it?" Levano muttered.

The vessel smashed its way through the rock fields, a small fireball seemed to be heading towards the lower islands, Levano and Ralgorn jumped off the island as the last of the soldiers had jumped.

In the safety of the Aetheric field, Levano stood on the flight pads, watching the huge grey beast in the distance.

"Levano," Ralgorn stood next to him, "Head inside and get some rest."

"I'm fine sir. I'd rather examine that thing up there, it doesn't seem to be a Dredgion and it's not taken any hostile actions, what could it be?"

"I'm just a gladiator Levano, not a scholar."

"Wait what's that!" Levano pointed towards the fireball he'd seen earlier. Another metallic dark grey vessel was struggling to keep aloft, a plume of smoke and flames billowed from its front right section, the thing lost altitude and landed heavily on the ground. It rolled over onto its side and came to a stop, resting on formation of Aether crystals, Ralgorn called soldiers over.

"Levano! Let's go! You wanted to investigate these things, now's your chance!" Ralgorn shouted as he jumped into the flight gates. Levano followed, sprouting large black, feathered wings, he glided down to the island, following Ralgorn to the crash site.

* * *

"Everybody alright?" Paul asked as he fumbled for his helmet. Blood was running into his eye from a cut on his forehead. Keiran replied from the cockpit as he rolled out of the seat. Richard freed himself from one of the seat harnesses and fell onto the other seats below him. Chris crawled towards the rear of the cabin and Kasamoni struggled to open her harness. The pilot didn't answer, his eyes were glazed over, Richard couldn't feel a pulse; the poor guy was literally scared to death.

"Guys! There are people coming towards us!" Keiran said.

"Where the hell are we?!" Paul asked, his temper rising.

"I think we're in the Abyss," Kasamoni said as she dropped from her seat, "I can feel the Aether here."

"Wait we're in that super shit storm you told us about?" Richard sighed.

"Everyone leave out the rear of the ship, if we have to fight I don't want us to be singled out," Paul ordered. Footsteps and the clanking of armour could be heard from outside, conversations and orders in a strange language also made themselves clear.

"They're Asmodians," Kasamoni tried to get past Paul, Richard and Chris.

"Chris open the door."

Chris nodded and pulled the emergency handle, he kicked at the hatch and saw a group of grey skinned people pointing their weapons at him. Richard pushed the other part of the hatch open, some of the weapons turned to him. An Asmodian shouted at them in his own language.

"They're asking you to get out."

Richard and Chris stood up to their full height, Richard kept a hand on his hip, just above his pistol. The Asmodian shouted something else at them. Paul clambered out and stood up as well. Some of the entourage that had greeted them were just a bit shorter than them, others were standard Human height and there was also one or two who were quite small.

"What did they say?"

"He's commanding you to state who you are or you'll be seen as an enemy."

"Well get out here and tell them we're not!" Richard shouted frantically.

Kasamoni pulled herself out the hatch, standing up just shy of the other's shoulders, "Ei'xh tru mohplhv!" she said sternly. Gasps echoed through the group. A red haired man spoke in their language.

"Kasamoni?" he questioned, "Is it you?"

"I said stand down!"

Keiran climbed out of the hatch and stood by the others. The Asmodians lowered their weapons.

"Kasamoni?"

"Yes it is me, Levano."

"W-what are these things?"

Kasamoni looked at them, "My saviours."

Richard leaned over to Paul, "Any idea what they're saying?" he whispered.

"Nope," Paul replied.

Ralgorn stepped forward, "Kasamoni? I've heard of that name somewhere."

"That might be because I'm the daeva who went missing during the battle at the Sulphur Fortress."

"Yes, we thought we had lost you to the Abyss. But what are these things?! Are they related to that metal monster in the sky?!"

Ralgorn pointed towards the distant Infinity.

"Yes they are. But I believe we should discuss this somewhere else."

"Hey it's the Infinity!" Keiran said as he followed Ralgorn's gesture. The others turned to see it.

"Thank god," Richard sighed, "I don't know who's luckier!"

"Bring them to Primum Landing! The General will want to hear of this," Ralgorn ordered.

* * *

The Asmodians surrounded the five of them as they escorted them to the flight gates. Levano looked at Kasamoni, he seemed concerned for some reason.

"Sir," Kasamoni started, "I think I should point out that these people can't fly, so we'll have to carry them."

Ralgorn raised an eyebrow and laughed, "These people can't even fly? How weak!"

"Hey whatever you're laughing at, why don't you shut up?" Richard shouted.

Ralgorn issued some orders and an Asmodian put their arms round each one of the guys and sprouted massive black wings from their backs. They tried to lift the Spartans off the ground but with little success.

"Yeah, we're a little heavier than we look," Chris chuckled. More Asmodians grabbed hold of them and lifted them off the ground easily. Kasamoni followed using her own black and pink feathered wings.

They carried them up to Primum Landing where the leader of the Asmodian forces in the Abyss was waiting for them. Ralgorn led them through the fortress to a large room, high vaulted ceilings with balconies held curious Asmodians above the main room, the Asmodian governor of the Reshanta was sat in his throne, flanked by two heavily armoured soldiers. He furrowed his brow as he gave each Spartan a piercing gaze.

"Ralgorn, who is this you bring before me?" he said in his native language.

"Sir, this is the daeva who went missing at Sulphur Fortress and these things say they are related to the metal monster in the sky," Ralgorn said as he bowed his head.

"Speak! What are you and what are you doing here?"

"With all due respect sir," Kasamoni interjected, "These people can't speak our language, I request that I speak for them."

"If they can't speak Asmodian then what do they speak?"

"They speak English, sir."

"English? I've never heard of such a language. Anyhow, who are they?"

Kasamoni asked the Spartans the question, to which Paul replied and she translated, "We're Humans, we ended up here after our ships were sucked into a portal."

"Ships? That thing you came here in?"

"Yes, it's called the Infinity, we mean no harm. As I said, we were brought here by accident."

"Then Kasamoni, how did you meet these people?"

Kasamoni paused for a moment.

"After the Abyss gate pulled me from this world, I woke up in a dark room, the air wasn't breathable and I was sure I would die. But then I heard footsteps and these people showed up and gave me some sort of mask to help me breath. There was a skirmish with some things that didn't look Human. They took me outside where I saw the sky of a different world, there was no tower, no aether or anyone else. A large metal flying ship floated down and picked us up. We then went higher and higher, whilst these people tried to find out what was going on. There was a moment when I started to fly as well, but not like usual, I felt like I didn't weigh a thing. After a while we were about to land inside the Infinity as they call it but another Abyss gate opened up and pulled us in and we ended up back here."

"Interesting. They don't look like normal Humans though, their size alone shows that."

Kasamoni translate to the group.

"There are enhanced Humans called Spartans."

"Enhanced Humans?"

"He says 'I guess you could call us the daevas of our world'."

"How could they be? They possess no power like ours!"

"They say that they're kind protected Humanity from extinction on their side."

"Really? How many of them are there?"

"They say there's about two to three hundred Spartans on the ship, but the crew consists of mostly normal Humans."

"How many Humans overall is there?"

"Roughly, seventeen thousand."

Murmurs and gasps were heard around the room. Richard and Keiran looked at each other, the former shrugged.

"Who's in charge of them?"

"This group or their entire ship sir?"

"The entire ship, daeva."

"That would be Captain Thomas Lasky and Commander Sarah Palmer."

"I recommend that they talk with the High Priest."

"Sir, there is something I think we should clear up first. These people don't look like us. They look more like Elyos. But they're trustworthy I swear."

"Have one of them show us their face."

Kasamoni told them what the Governor ordered. All of them unsealed their helmets with a hiss and showed their faces. Rage filled shouts filled the room as people saw them as Elyos soldiers. The Governor silenced them with a raised hand. Kasamoni looked around as some daevas drew their weapons. Levano looked at her like she had betrayed them.

"Governor please! From my short time with them I know we can trust them! They saved me, so why can't we give something back in return!"

"Someone send a report of this to Pandemonium quickly! If this meeting is approved we'll grant them access to Asmodae via the Abyss gate."

"Thank you!"

Kasamoni turned to the group with a smile. She happily explained their situation and they all sighed with relief. Keiran put his helmet back on and contacted the Infinity, informing them of what was happening. The daevas dispersed and the tension in the room evaporated, Levano walked over to them with a large purple shield and a sword with a channel of magma down the centre.

"Kasamoni, I've got your gear," he said nervously. Kasamoni took her weapon and shield with a smile.

"It's not like you to go in the Abyss without me," she said, "I would've thought you would be doing errands around Morheim or Altgard."

"When you disappeared right in front of me I swore never to leave until I lost my way or you returned."

"Don't try to act all chivalrous, you know how dangerous it is here."

"It's not like you were gone for very long anyway; it was only a week ago that you disappeared."

"It didn't feel that long in the other world. How's Luna doing?"

"She was training in Altgard last time I saw her."

In the shadows a silhouette lurked, finding the right place to strike from, no one was aware of the Asmodian drawing her two knives. The Spartans were talking amongst themselves, nearby was Kasamoni and Levano. The ranger leapt from the rafters towards the Spartans. Chris sensed movement and pushed the others out the way, a moment later knives struck the ground as the woman tried to slam the blades into Keiran and Richard's heads. She spun and lunged at Chris who expertly dodge the blade and delivered a swift punch to the gut, the other blade skimmed his right arm. He used the momentum of his punch to pick the woman up off the floor and throw her over onto her back. Guards ran towards them and restrained the woman who spat incoherent curses at the group.

"Are you alright?" asked Kasamoni. Chris rubbed the small scratch on his armour.

"Yeah we're fine," he said.

Levano pulled Kasamoni to one side, "Why are you helping these people?"

"I thought I said, maybe you didn't hear the bit where I said that they saved my life."

"Does it matter if you did die? You would've just resurrected!"

"I also recall saying that there was no aether in their world. How could I resurrect?"

Levano looked away.

Kasamoni sighed, "If we get to know these guys I bet we can get on just fine!"

"But they look like Elyos and you know how much Luna hates them."

"Trust me, it'll all work out."

A messenger returned and spoke to the Governor. The Infinity had been cleared to enter Asmodae. After it was translated and reported to the Infinity, Kasamoni lead the Spartans to one of the teleport gates.

"I suggest hiding your faces until the news spreads around," Kasamoni said, "It won't be long but you'll have to until you at least get to Pandemonium. But even then some people won't take lightly to it so be cautious."

"How do we switch this thing on?" Keiran asked.

"You don't, these teleporters are magical so I'll use my power to send us all there. Ish gex kreloj Levano?"

Levano nodded. There was a flash of light and the group appeared in a huge city, Asmodian civilians watched them as they walked through the huge arch into a plaza just outside the main city.

"I guess we're waiting for the Captain and Commander then," Richard said. A few minutes later the Infinity flew overhead as it headed to the far side of the city near the airship docks. A Pelican landed nearby, civilians and daeva alike watched with increasing curiosity. The hatch opened up, Palmer and Smith stepped out, hands ready to pull out weapons if the situation demanded it. Fireteam Orion stood to attention, to the surprise of Kasamoni who saw their superiors for the first time. Lasky stepped out next and stood between Palmer and Smith as murmurs went around the crowds. The trio walked towards the team, who saluted as Lasky saluted to them.

"Good work getting us this far Orion," Lasky said, "You must be Kasamoni?"

Kasamoni did a clumsy imitation of the UNSC salute, "Y-yes I am."

"There's no need for you to salute. I'm Captain Thomas Lasky, this is Commander Palmer and this is Lieutenant Smith, I guess you'll be our translator?"

"Yes, I'll take you to High Priest Baldur and Governor Vidar."

Laura walked up to Orion, "I thought we'd lost you for a moment there. It's nice to see you're all alive."

"Not everyone Lieutenant," Keiran replied.

"Yes I know a team recovered the wreckage and his body before we came here. Also Sergeant Craft and Qiuyue give their thanks for what you did on Daneeion. Get back to the Infinity and get some rest, we'll inform you of what's happening later."

"Ma'am, about that Vocaloid," Paul started.

"First of all Miku is in the infirmary, she went into a state of shock during the incident. She watched you disappear into the portal, the doctors say she's not well but she'll pull through, I'll let you talk to her about the other Vocaloid as well."

"Thanks."

"And don't call me ma'am! It makes me sound old."

Kasamoni led the Captain and his entourage to the capitol building, Fireteam Orion climbed onto the waiting Pelican and flew back to the ship.

"Do you think the Captain will be alright?" asked Keiran.

"With the two meanest bitches on the ship either side of him?" Richard replied, "You ask some dumb questions."

* * *

The ruined Pelican was lying on the hangar floor when Orion arrived, mechanics were salvaging any working systems from the broken heap of metal, the team watched for a moment before heading to S-Deck. Personnel were rushing all over the place as they did their jobs, a considerable amount of checks were being done up and down the ship to make sure all the systems were still running. The infirmary on S-Deck was being used for standard treatment due to the large amount of people who sustained injuries during the jump. People stepped out the way as Orion were fast tracked straight in for check-ups. On one of the wards a doctor with a team of nurses waited for Orion with sophisticated equipment on a trolley behind them.

"Spartans Foulston, Leivers, Compton and Marshall I presume," the doctor greeted them with a weathered smile.

"That would be us," Paul replied as he pulled his helmet off, the wound he had acquired had congealed but the blood had dried and was smeared down the right hand side of his face.

"That's a nasty cut you've got there, we'll sort it out after your check-up so let's get started."

Two nurses went to each of the Spartans and sat them down on the end of the beds. They did numerous checks with equipment that could scan their bodies through the armour, personnel peeked through the door as they shuffled by in the queue, twenty minutes went by as the checks continued on and on. Eventually the checks were all finished and they had their injuries patched up.

"Doctor," Paul started as he felt the bandage around his forehead, "Is Miku alright?"

"Why don't you see for yourself?" the doctor said as he led him through to a room with four beds separated by curtains around the edges. He drew back the curtains where Miku was sat upright in the bed, she looked at them for a moment before realising who stood before her, her eyes lit up as Paul sat down on the bed and embraced her.

"Don't do that!" she sobbed, "Don't scare me like that!"

Paul laughed, "You know I'd never leave you."

Meilin poked her head round the curtain and stared in disbelief at the site of Orion, "Oh my god you guys made it!"

"Well of course we did!" Richard retorted, "Orion doesn't go down that easily!"

"I guess we still owe you then?"

"I guess so, and why are you here anyway?"

"I was just visiting Spartan Sethunya," Meilin pulled the curtain aside in a grandiose manner to reveal Mala Sethunya laying in the bed with her leg in a cast. Her dark skin contrasted with the pure white of her hair and her bright green eyes shimmered like emeralds.

Mala looked over at them and waved gingerly, "Thank god you're alive, Meilin told me we're in a different world now or something. Where are we?"

"You'll have to see for yourself, it's hard to explain," Chris said.

"Maybe we can get Kasamoni to take you some place nice?" suggested Richard.

"Kasamoni?" the girls asked simultaneously.

"Our new friend," Paul said, "She came from the strange light we saw. Then when we were all back up in orbit we were pulled into a portal and ended up in her world."

"Umm… Paul," Miku quietly spoke, "What about Aria?"

Paul sighed. "Do you know her?"

"I remember seeing her around the college before you came to get me. We didn't really speak though."

"Do you think we could bring her back?"

"Whoa there, she tried to kill us!" Richard pointed out, "She was leading a squad of Elites."

"I remember rumours about her refusing to bond with a new master, wishing she could live by herself. She was said to use people to get what she wanted," Miku carried on speaking.

"I don't think she's with the Elites for the hell of it," Keiran said, "What could she possibly gain from working with them?"

"If the rumours are true then she must have her own goals," Paul speculated.

"Well the Covenant Remnant are always going after Prometheans," Richard implied, "She's a Vocaloid, an AI, maybe she wants the Prometheans? An AI controlling other AI."

"Richard that might be the smartest thing you've said over the course of your entire life," Chris chuckled.

"He's got a point. However let's focus on our current situation. Asmodae doesn't seem like the friendliest of places." Paul suggested. The others agreed unanimously, the clinking of metal boots and armour could be heard in the distance, people were muttering worriedly outside the ward. Kasamoni and Levano squeezed their way into the ward through the crowd. The pair put a clenched fist to their chest and bowed slightly.

"I guess these are the natives?" Meilin asked, brushing her dark blue hair out of her eyes.

"That was a quick discussion," Chris noted.

"Your Captain was only there to discuss what you were allowed to do," Kasamoni said.

"So what are we allowed to do?" asked Paul.

"You'll be allowed to stay here and visit Pandemonium, but only Fireteam Orion, Vixen and Hecht I believe are allowed anywhere else."

"Well that's great! We're allowed out, along with these ladies and Sergeant Craft's squad."

"First of all though, I've been asked to help a man called Roland with some kind of translation script according to your Captain."

Roland popped up nearby, "You called?"

Levano and Kasamoni jumped at the appearance of the hologram, Levano activated his gauntlet and a small black and purple skull hovered around his hand. Kasamoni grabbed his hand and urged him to stay calm.

"This is Roland," Keiran explained, "He's the ships AI."

"AI?" Kasamoni asked.

"Artificial Intelligence, Paul's friend over there with the bright blue hair like yours is a different type of AI called a Vocaloid. Roland here controls the entire ship."

"Like a spirit?"

"I guess you could say that. But they're the pinnacle of computational and, for Miku, hologram technology rather than any sort of magic."

"Captain Lasky informed me that you would be on your way," Roland explained, "I'm creating something to translate between the languages, so when you guys speak in your own language to our Spartans, they'll hear it in English and when they speak to you in English you'll hear it from their speakers in Asmodian."

"Why only the Spartans?"

"They're armour is the only equipment that can really use the system, which is fine seeing as it's only three fireteams that are being allowed out."

"Fair enough, shall we get started?"

"Could somebody lead our friend to the research deck please?"

"I'll take her!" Meilin offered, grabbing Kasamoni by the arm and pulling her out the room, slowly followed by Levano who looked back at the others, he didn't seem to like this one bit.

* * *

In orbit around Daneeion, the Pillar Reborn and two Charon class frigates formed up as reinforcements arrived. The Covenant had left the system after the portal had closed, leaving the UNSC fleet to take accounts of who survived and which ships were lost. Captain Doreius Haemon of the Pillar Reborn sent out a distress call as soon as the numbers had been confirmed. Within hours a fleet of ten Halcyon class cruisers had arrived with orders from ONI to head back to Haumea for investigation. The Halcyon fleet was to station themselves around Daneeion and carry on with the investigation of the Prometheans whilst being on the watch for other portals that may bring the Infinity back.

As the battered fleet landed at one of Haumeas military dry docks all personnel were taken to the ONI facility in the nearby city for questioning, many checks were done on the crews; Doreius was taken for an interview. They asked him to explain the events that led to the disappearance of the Infinity, no doubt they were going to do the same to all of the officers on the bridge of each ship, Doreius suspected that the news had spread rapidly through the UNSC and maybe even the media. This wasn't good for his file, how can somebody lose a ship five kilometres long in a few minutes?

* * *

The canteen was bustling with activity as students went about their business during the lunch time, teachers tried to control the crowds as best they could, but the chaos of school lunch time went on regardless. Luka and Al carried their trays through the crowds, literally walking through students that wouldn't move out of the way, Rachel and Noah waved them over to their table. Noah and Al started stuffing their faces with pizza to the disgust of the girls.

"Don't you guys care about your health at all?" Rachel asked before digging in to her salad.

"Men like us don't need to eat those sissy salads like you peasants," Noah said in a grand tone, "We eat like kings!"

"And die like a king who loves to pig out?"

"Which king died like that?" asked Al with a full mouth.

"Elvis."

"But I'm not a singer, Al's the singer in this crime fighting duo," Noah noted.

"I'm not dying like Elvis! I'm too sexy to die fat," Al panicked, the three of them laughed, Luka just prodded her meal with a fork.

"Luka?" addressed Noah, "You're being awfully quiet."

Rachel put an arm round her and rubbed her arm, "Don't worry about those two. You know Miku would hate it if you moped around all day worrying about them."

"And Paul's a complete badass now!"

"Yeah, he'll look after them both!" Al added.

"Not to mention they're on the biggest, toughest ship the UNSC has!"

Music interrupted the attempt to cheer Luka up, the televisions on the wall had changed to a breaking news story.

"A few hours ago three UNSC ships that had sustained heavy damage landed on Haumea for emergency repairs," the newsreader spoke. A video taken from a small pier near the dry docks showed the Pillar Reborn and the two frigates in dry dock next to a lake. "The ships were from the escort detail of the UNSC Infinity starship that left for Daneeion two days ago. They arrived here after a distress call was sent out calling for reinforcements claiming that the Infinity had disappeared, this was the distress call. 'This is Captain Haemon of the Pillar Reborn. Send reinforcements, the Infinity is gone! I repeat the Infinity is gone!' The Office of Naval Intelligence held a conference after investigations had been conducted. It is said that a huge portal appeared after they had acquired a certain objective, sucking in the Infinity and the eight ships docked inside, a brilliant flash of light blinded the crews of the surviving ships and when it died down the ship was nowhere to be seen. The current location of the Infinity is unknown, all seventeen thousand souls on board a listed as MIA."

The group was silent for a moment, the news began to sink in as they just sat there, just as they were trying to cheer up Luka. Luka got up and ran out of the canteen, tears streaming down her face, Noah threw his hands in the air.

"Just as we were cheering her up as well," he said.

"Shut up!" Rachel snapped back at him.

"Shouldn't you go after her?"

"I guess so, but, do you think they'll be alright?"

Noah sighed and crossed his arms, "They have to be right? They can't just disappear on us like that."

* * *

Keiran typed a fresh line of code into his datapad, he sighed, placing the datapad on the bedside cabinet and laid on his bed. It was the first time he had to relax and work on his project since they had arrived at Daneeion, he went through the processes in his head as he tried to figure out the final part of code his project needed. Somebody knocked on the door.

"It's open," Keiran called out, the door slid open and Paul stood in the doorway.

"We're going back down soon," Paul said, "We've got to get the translators fitted first though. Head down to the armoury as soon as possible."

"Will do."

Paul turned to leave. "Hey Paul."

"What?" Paul asked.

"What do you really think Aria is up to?"

Paul sat down on the end of Keiran's bed, he sighed, "I have ideas."

Keiran sat up, "Tell me."

"Well how likely is it that Prometheans had starships?"

"I see where you're going with that. How does Miku feel about the whole thing?"

"She wants to try and get Aria back. Somehow I don't think that's going to happen."

"You know how dangerous it is if she's thinking of talking her out of it."

"I know, but when Miku sets herself to a task she makes sure it gets done."

"I can't imagine her being that serious in all honesty."

"I have a plan for the moment when she needs to protect herself, I just need Miku's consent. I've put her through enough already by bringing her with me."

"Hey don't make it out like you dragged her along against her will! You gave her a choice and she chose to stay by your side even though it meant leaving all her friends and her whole life as a singer behind."

Paul looked at his temporary helmet, "You're right. I don't know what I'd do without a friend like you by my side."

"Don't forget Richard and Chris, remember we're Fireteam Orion! We fight together and we'll get home together."

"You should be in charge of speeches round here, shall we get these translators setup?"

"After you sarge."

* * *

Kasamoni, Levano, Richard, Miku and Christopher were waiting on the main walkway in the armoury when Paul and Keiran walked in. Technicians handed Keiran a chip to plug into his helmet whilst Paul transferred the data to an isolated section of Miku's chip. The group made their way through the ship to the Pelican waiting for them. After dropping Kasamoni and Levano off at Pandemonium they flew across the country to the region named Morheim, Kasamoni had told them to meet her at the desert garrison in the Salinas desert. By the time they got there Kasamoni and Levano were waiting at the camp. A hysterical woman was beside them. Paul walked to the edge of the hatch.

"Whats up?" he asked. Kasamoni looked annoyed.

"We've been here for ages!" she shouted over the noise from the engines, "We're heading over to those caves over there, this woman lost her child in there when a swarm of Arachna overwhelmed them."

"We're on our way!"

The Pelican lifted off, complaints from Asmodians around them were cut short by threatening glances from Kasamoni. She reassured the woman and then gestured at Levano to follow her.

* * *

Fireteam Orion landed hard on the sands outside the cave, spiders the size of Mongoose ATVs skittered around the entrance, the team pulled out their weapons. Kasamoni and Levano showed up moments later. Paul and Chris ran forward firing at the arachna ignoring Kasamoni's warnings. The gunfire made the daevas jump at the sound, swarms of arachna rushed out of the cave mouth. Richard and Keiran added their firepower to the mix, cutting down arachna as they moved forward. Kasamoni unsheathed her sword and charge towards a group of arachna off to the side. She leapt into the air, spinning round as she landed in the centre of them, slicing the creatures in half and punching one into the distance. Fire and ice bolts slaughtered more of the swarm as Levano channelled his power through the magic skull floating between his hands.

Richard pumped the shotgun and fired again, obliterating a score of arachna in the way, Chris shot one that tried to jump at Richard. Slowly the group made their way into the cave where the swarms of arachna thickened. Keiran blazed away with his assault rifle, the team stepped over countless bodies as the wall of arachna thinned out until they were all dead or running away.

"Hello!" Kasamoni shouted, "Is anybody there?"

A frail cry was heard echoing through the cave system. The team split up to find the source. Keiran and Paul went one way, Richard and Chris went another with Kasamoni and Levano going another way. Keiran and Paul's lights lit up the route ahead of them as they gunned down any surviving arachna. The crying got louder, the pair started jogging as they approached and rounding a corner they found the small boy curled up in a ball. Keiran slotted the rifle onto the mag-lock on his back. He knelt down by the boy and checked to see if he was alright.

"Can you hear me?" he said, the translator making him speak Asmodian, "You're going to be ok."

"Mama?" the boy muttered.

"We'll take you to your mama, don't worry."

Keiran picked up the child and nodded to Paul.

"Guys we've found the kid, make your way outside, we'll meet you out there," Paul transmitted.

"Paul…" Miku said quietly from within Paul's helmet.

"What?"

"Is it ok if I come out when we get to the garrison?"

"Sure. We'll see how they react."

The two of them jogged back through the tunnels to the point where the tunnels forked, following the trail of arachna bodies they found the tunnel leading outside. Kasamoni and Levano were waiting for them.

"Where are the others?" Keiran asked.

"We're on our way," Richard said, the bark of his shotgun was audible, "Some more of these damn bugs showed up as we were heading back."

"Need any help?" asked Paul.

"Don't be silly. We've killed them already."

A shotgun blast was heard as Richard killed one final arachna as he left the cave, Chris left him to it and joined the others. After Richard joined them they started walking back to the garrison. Kasamoni tried to speak to the child in Keiran's arms, he only answered in quiet mumbles as he gazed around at the armoured soldiers. Back at the garrison the woman ran forwards and took the child from Keiran, she thanked them continuously as she held her son tightly, Asmodians and daeva alike watched as the woman offered them her money.

"Keep the money," Paul said, everybody was shocked, "we don't need it, we were just here to help."

The others nodded in agreement. The woman thanked them one more time and headed home.

"Are you guys insane?" Levano asked, speaking to them for the first time, "How could you just leave a payment like that?"

"It's finally nice to speak to you Levano but has it never occurred to you that we don't need it?"

"But how will you feed yourselves?"

"We can go for days without food or water and we have the Infinity for that sort of stuff."

"I'm guessing you guys get paid by your government then?" asked Kasamoni.

"Well half my pay goes to my family, I keep the rest but yeah, you're right."

"Also, where is that girl we saw in the infirmary?"

"Right here," Miku said through Paul's helmet. Kasamoni looked at Paul with a raised eyebrow. Miku popped up with a smile, wearing her signature outfit.

"Miku, why on Earth are you wearing that?" Paul asked.

"Well seeing as I'm the only Vocaloid here I need to represent people like me."

Murmurs went around as bystanders stared at Miku, mutterings of spirits and demons were picked up by the translators. Kasamoni dismissed her intial surprise, raising an arm to shake hands with Miku.

"It's nice to finally talk to you properly," Kasamoni said. Miku raised her hand, making it pass straight through Kasamoni's. The latter reeled back in shock, "What are you?!"

Paul stepped in to explain, "Long story short, she's my companion, she was made to sing but she chose to come with me after I joined the UNSC. I got paired with her when I was enrolled in the college of her creators, she's a hologram. We don't think of her as one though."

"I…see…"

"I can fight too, just other things like me."

"Maybe, one day you can show us this singing Paul mentioned."

Miku smiled from ear to ear, "Definitely!"

"Anyway guys, get some rest, we'll be heading for the old ruins to collect some ancient gear for the Shadow Court."

"Because they sound lovely," Richard said sarcastically.


	10. Chapter 9 - A Regular Day in Asmodae

**I may not upload a chapter for a while thanks to A-Level exams coming up. I will possibly get a small chapter out, nothing too serious though. Enjoy and have a good day.**

**Pablo signing off!**

* * *

The sky lit up by the smallest amount as the Asmodian day began, huge squawking birds filled the garrison with noise as they sung their morning calls, Orion team sat around the fire. Richard looked up at the sky.

"So is it night or day?" he asked.

"Good morning," Kasamoni said as she walked towards them with her sword over her shoulder.

"And an early good morning to you too."

"What are you on about? It's way past sunrise."

"Really? It seems pretty dark to me."

"You're just not used to it yet."

"Enough chit chat," Paul ordered, "What are we doing next?"

"You guys are so serious all the time," Levano muttered.

"What would you expect with us being the soldiers who protect humanity and all?" Richard added.

"Not here you're not."

Richard stood up and looked Levano in the eyes, "You wouldn't stand a chance if our enemies showed up here."

"So brash and ready to fight as well. It's surprising you don't fight each other."

"And that's coming from a member of a nation that has been fighting for longer than it can remember!"

"Shut it both of you!" Paul snapped.

Richard walked off and put his helmet on, Levano walked off in the other direction. Kasamoni started following Levano for a moment before turning to speak, "Head down into the valley to the old ruins, we'll meet you there."

Paul nodded and addressed the others, "Richard that was the stupidest thing you have ever done, we're here to gain their trust not start fights! Get ready we're moving out in five minutes."

"You realise that as soon as the Elyos decide to do something we'll have to fight them," Richard noted.

"It's not like you to not want to fight. Are you becoming a pacifist now?"

"You know what I mean."

"I do, but we're soldiers, it's what we do. I don't like it either, but we're working with the Asmodians so it's inevitable that we will fight them."

Richard sighed and nodded in agreement, they all knew what it might take to get back home, be it Elyos or any other foes that got in their way that would be cut down. Paul knelt down beside Miku who was still fast asleep somehow, gently shaking her awake, she rubbed her eyes and sat up.

"Get up sleepy head, we're going soon," Paul said with a smile.

* * *

The Pelican touched down by the side of the lake, locals watched cautiously from a distance, the raiders from the nearby camp readied their weapons. Meilin jumped down and casually looked around as the rest of the girls disembarked, including Mala who carefully lowered herself down onto her good leg. Meilin sighed as she saw the soldiers with their hands on the hilts of their swords, looks like they still didn't trust them, even though Lasky puts his trust in them. The Pelican lifted off and flew away over the mountains.

"Cass, do your thing," Meilin ordered. Cassidy Wright was shorter than the others; she had brown hair which was slightly curly, hazelnut brown eyes and freckles on her cheeks. She had a large case with a shoulder strap fastened to it slung over her shoulder. Cassidy settled it on the ground and typed in the code to unlock it, inside was an assortment of experiments and bio-scanners for Fireteam Vixen to conduct their biological survey for Infinity Science, she took out a water sampler and waded into the water.

"Sergeant," Mala said, "Why did you bring me along in this state?"

"I thought it might do you some good to get out of that ward. That Kasamoni girl also said that this lake is said to accelerate the healing process."

"And you believed them?" scoffed Lovisa, her strong Swedish accent paired with a mocking tone made her sound unbelievably cold and mean spirited. She pulled off her helmet to reveal her pale skin, blue eyes and blonde hair like spun gold.

"Lovisa darling, this world is full of strange things, we aren't in the realm of technology and science anymore."

"I might as well try," Mala said.

"Not until I've finished my tests, no offense but you would contaminate the samples," Cassidy told her.

"Well tell me when you're done will you."

"Will do."

"I guess nothing gets in the way of a Pegasi graduate and their experiments," Lovisa joked, though it didn't come across as one.

Asmodians went about their duties as normal but kept well away from the squad, sat a distance away from the others to disassemble her battle rifle, Meilin took pictures for the archives and Cassidy carried on with her experiments whilst Mala relaxed in the shallow water of the lake. A shout came from the camp nearby, an Asmodian man was calling out to a group of children, the kids ignored him and carried on running around. They started running towards the team despite the protests of the man at the camp. Meilin stopped taking pictures as the kids stood around her.

"Hello," she said kneeling down, "do you want something?"

"What are you doing?" one of the boys asked.

"I'm just taking pictures for people back home."

"My father over there thinks you're an Elyos even though the council said you weren't."

"I can understand why he thinks that, we don't look like you guys."

"I don't care what you look like, even with your funny coloured head!" one girl announced.

"Funny coloured head? Oh that's just my helmet."

"Take it off!" another shouted. The others started chanting as well.

"Ok! I'll take it off."

Meilin detached the translator microphone and pulled off her helmet. Her dark purple hair shimmered in the slivers of sunlight. The kids stared at her for a moment before one of the girls smiled.

"You're pretty," she said.

"Thank you."

"How are you taking pictures? You don't even have a canvas?" one boy asked.

"Oh, we have these things called cameras. Let me show you something. Stand together and give me a big smile."

The kids huddled together and smiled, Meilin pointed the camera at them, making some nervous.

"Don't worry. It won't hurt you, we use these all the time."

She pressed the button and a moment later the picture popped up on the screen. The kids ran over to see what she did. "And there's a picture of you all."

The kids gasped and asked for more pictures. A few minutes later the man came over, shouting at Meilin and ordering the kids to get away from her. Meilin stood up to her full height. The man hesitated for a moment before standing his ground, face to face with her.

"You Elyos witch!" he shouted at her, "What have you done to my child and his friends?"

"Nothing!" Meilin protested her innocence, "I was just showing them something from our world!"

"It was probably some Elyos propaganda wasn't it! Or some soul stealing magic!"

"Calm down! I'm not even related to the Elyos!"

The man brought his arm up to backhand her, Meilin caught the man by the wrist, holding his arm there with just one hand. Lovisa got up, slotting the rifle onto her back, and made her way to the arguing pair. "I said I'm not Elyos!"

"What is going on here sergeant?" Lovisa asked coldly.

"Another pink skin? We don't like your kind here!" the man snapped at her.

"Did you not hear my superior say we are not your enemies? We're not even from any part of Atreia. We don't even have any magical power."

"You look like them though!"

"That's like us saying you look like somebody who was lost on an ice world for fifty years so we should leave you to die. How pathetic."

The man tried to think of something to say. Lovisa gave him a cold stare. "Get out of here, you're wrong."

"Pipe down Spartan!" Meilin ordered, letting go of the guy's wrist. Lovisa crossed her arms and looked at Meilin sceptically. "I'll sort this out myself! Just keep an eye on Cass and Mala."

Lovisa tutted and walked away.

"I apologise for my squad-mate's actions, she was out of order," Meilin said to the man, who had slowly stepped away. "I'd like to discuss this matter with whoever is in charge here."

* * *

Kasamoni ripped the ghostly armour off the spirit, opening her storage cube she counted how many pieces she had acquired; the latest count put the number at eleven.

"Levano," she called out, "How many have you pieces of armour do you have?"

"Twelve! Do you think we have enough?" he shouted back.

The conversation went back and forth, Fireteam Orion stood back as the daevas went on and on about their work, the team had learnt that bullets couldn't stop the ancient Elyos spirits that wandered the ruins so they had elected to just sit back and relax whilst Kasamoni and Levano did their job.

"Are you guys just going to shout at each other when you're only about twenty metres away or are we done here?" Richard asked impatiently. Levano glared at him. "What?"

Kasamoni spoke before Levano could say anything, "We should be fine, the Shadow Court can be a little picky though. We'll head back now."

"We need to send a report back to the Infinity," Paul noted, "We'll join you in about half an hour."

"Sure, we'll get some lovely Ksellid meat roasting for you."

Kasamoni and Levano walked down the sandstone stairs, leaving Orion at the entrance to the ruins.

Keiran held the projector the palm of his hand. An image of Laura popped up on a holographic screen.

"Orion?" Laura addressed them, "Is it time for the report thing?"

She looked worn out.

"Uh… yes ma'am."

"Oh sorry. How unprofessional of me. I'm ready for your report."

Paul retold the events of the day in as much detail as he could, with some additions from the others and a few pointless ones from Richard's attempts at showing off. Twenty minutes went by as they carried on, soon after they finished and Laura signed it off as she saved it to the archives.

"Lieutenant?"

"What is it?"

"You alright? You seem a bit worn out."

"Palmer disappeared to do more important duties and put me in charge of approving reports from the other two teams and pilots who have been out as well."

"What are the others doing?" Chris asked.

"Vixen and Hecht? A bunch of errands. Vixen finished a bunch of biochemistry experiments in a place called Ishalgen or something. There was a bit of a row when Sergeant Qiuyue was approached by some kids, just some adult declaring the team to be Elysean. Qiuyue sorted it out though. Fireteam Hecht was tasked with documenting civilian life in Asmodae, Punky didn't enjoy it which created some problems but Sergeant Craft sorted it out and was able to get quite a few people to contribute."

"Any idea what they're doing now?"

"Craft said that somebody suggested a tavern they worked for, I think they're all heading there soon."

"Maybe we'll show up later," Paul said.

"Whatever, I'll get back to whatever it was I was doing. Lieutenant Smith out."

Keiran put the projector back into its pouch and the team started walking back to the garrison. As they walked up the winding path to the garrison they heard screams, war cries and a monstrous beastly roar. Orion grabbed their weapons and crept up the hill. A huge bird with gigantic black wings, a tattered grey tail and huge clawed feet was butchering its way through the garrison; daevas were trying to hold the beast back as mortals ran for their lives but even the mighty daevas were being cut down. Levano cast an impenetrable shield around himself as Kasamoni deflected a blow with her shield. Smaller versions of the thing seemed to appear out of nowhere, striking down people who let their guard down for a brief moment, Orion crept back a bit to formulate a plan.

"We need to get that things attention," Paul said, Miku disappeared into his helmet.

Richard raised his hand, "I'll do it. You guys get down onto the plains where we can fight this guy."

The others looked at him in shock.

"Did you seriously just say that?" Keiran asked.

"Yeah. What's so amazing about that?"

"Just wasn't expecting it."

"Well seeing as Richard sorted out our plan all by himself we'll start heading down to the plains," Paul said, "Good luck Rich."

The three of them ran back down the path, leaving Richard to formulate his own little plan for distracting the beast. After a moment he jumped up and ran into the garrison. He whistled, the beast turned to look at him, as well as all the Asmodians.

"I need you guys to stop attacking it! I wanna have a nice little chat with the thing."

The bird spread its wings out before him, it was almost four times as tall as him, Richard gestured helplessly to try and calm the bird down.

"Right, easy boy, I'm just going to lead you away now if that's okay."

The bird came closer.

"Whoa slow down there!"

The bird didn't stop.

"I hate myself!"

He ran back down the hill, the bird chased him, its beak snapping right behind him. Paul, Keiran and Chris were waiting for him at the bottom of the hill.

"You can shoot it now guys!"

Paul and Chris fired with their battle rifles, Keiran with his assault rifle, the thing staggered back as bullets peppered its huge body, Richard turned and fired his DMR as well. Tiny birds flew towards them, the team shot them down and dodged the survivors with ease, the giant was suddenly amongst them. Paul was sent flying as the thing hit him with the side of its head, Chris ducked underneath and fired into its belly, Keiran dived to the ground and Richard jumped back out of the way.

"Guys! Try and hold its head still!" Keiran shouted.

"You realise how ridiculous that sounds don't you?" Richard asked.

"Just do it!"

Richard and Chris surrounded the beast. Paul leapt at it and planted his elbow between its eyes. The bird stumbled back, Richard and Chris took their chance and grabbed it by the small horns above its head, Keiran keyed in the code on his Spartan laser to access the overcharge mode.

"Whatever you're gonna do! Do it quickly!" Chris shouted.

Keiran lined up the shot, he held down the trigger, a whirring noise signalled the charging of the laser. An intense red glow grew until the laser discharged, throwing Keiran backwards, Richard and Chris jumped out the way. The overcharged laser tore right through the creature's body and carried on going, its head was destroyed and a small part of a nearby sand dune was sent into the air. Keiran threw the red hot laser away, it landed in a small drift of sand and exploded from the heat, Keiran picked himself up and dusted the sand away.

Richard got up and observed their handiwork, "I don't see what the big deal was? He wasn't that tough."

"Shut up!" Chris jeered, "You were still broadcasting earlier! What was it? I hate myself?"

Richard gave Chris a soft punch in the arm, "Whatever, at least we got the thing away from the garrison right sarge?"

"Don't call me that. But you're right. We might even be called heroes!" Paul joked.

"They might be a bit pissed off that we took the glory like that though," Miku noted from within the helmet, "They seem like those sort of people."

"That's no way to talk about our friends."

"He's right, that's cold coming from you," Keiran said. Miku said nothing.

"Probably a bit grumpy from the early wake-up call," Paul whispered. The others nodded.

"I'm in this helmet with you, I can hear what you are saying," Miku said coldly.

The team slowly walked back up to the garrison. Daeva and mortals alike were tending to their wounds, the Soul Healer was busy curing resurrected daevas of their soul sickness, which happened when they resurrected causing them to be slow and weak for a few minutes. Kasamoni tied the bandage around her right leg and helped Levano wrap a bandage round his abdomen. Orion casually walked into the camp and were greeted by claps and cheers. Kasamoni helped Levano up and they began to clap. The guys didn't seem tired at all, the only sign of damage was bare metal showing on Paul's torso armour from where the thing had hit him. Kasamoni limped over to them, Levano right behind her.

"Did you guys really kill the King?" she asked in astonishment.

"The King? Did we do something wrong?" Paul asked.

"No it's great! One appears every few years. It was a King Consierd, kind of like a leader for a large flock of Gryphus that nest up near the tops of the mountains. Somebody brought it here when they tried to get away from it."

"At least everybody is alright," Richard said.

"Only daevas were taken down, luckily most of us were bound to the obelisk here but we still suffered from soul sickness."

"Still, nobody actually died."

"I take back what I said before," Levano said suddenly, "You guys truly are powerful warriors."

"That looks like it stings a bit," Keiran pointed at the blood stained bandage Levano was wearing.

"Ah it's nothing, my power is all in the mind, a bit of a cut across my stomach won't do anything."

"You guys rest," Paul said, "We're heading to a tavern in Pandemonium to meet up with the other Spartans, we'll see you later."

"Have a good night," Kasamoni nodded to them, "You have earned it."


	11. Chapter 10 - A Night on the Town

**Just a short little chapter this time, as I said I'm kinda drowning in exams for the moment. Also! I thought this story needed a cover so I made one. It's based off something I did for my media course but it will be significant in future chapters. Its not perfect but I don't really care, for an afternoons work I'm happy with it.**

**Pablo signing off!**

* * *

The tavern was filled with loud banter and friendly conversations, in the corner Vixen and Hecht were chatting amongst themselves, workers and other guests kept a wary eye on them. Richard pushed the doors open like it was an old western film, garnering the attention of everybody in the bar causing an awkward silence. He looked left and right before finding the others in the corner, Meilin shook her head and turned away, the rest of Orion pushed Richard out the way and took a seat around the large table.

"How you doing?" asked Mon Craft before throwing back a decent amount of his drink, a drop or two ran down his chin, "This stuff is good!"

"We're good, how about the rest of you?" Paul asked as he pulled up a chair, Miku sat on his legs as he sat down.

"Sounds like you guys had fun, news travels fast around here, killing that Consierd thing sounds like a story and a half," said Meilin.

"I'm sure Richard would love to retell it," Chris playfully punched Richard's shoulder guard.

"You bet I would!" he said excitedly.

"Especially the part where you spoke about regretting your amazing plan and running like a little bitch."

"You heard that?"

"I guess only true heroes leave their radio-link on then?" asked Keiran.

"Of course."

A waitress came over to the table and set down four flagons of ale for the guys, Mon thanked the waitress and she left them. Richard set his helmet down on the table and had a small sip of the ale.

"Hold on a minute," Punky pointed at Richard, "Aren't you guys a little too young to drink?"

"I'm eighteen soon and I'm the youngest so it's basically okay."

"Hey I'm the youngest!" Miku pouted.

"Fine, youngest Spartan. Happy now?"

Miku nodded and watched Paul as he tasted the ale.

"Come to think of it? How old are you Miku?" Cassidy asked. Miku thought about it for a moment before answering.

"Technically, I'm five hundred and forty-five years old, but I'm actually only sixteen."

"Oh yeah, the college was founded just after the new millennium wasn't it?"

"Screw how old she is!" Meilin said, "I wanna know how they met."

Miku blushed a little, "W-w-well … um."

"Aww she's gone all shy," Mala rested her chin on her hands.

"I signed up for the college when I was about fourteen," Paul started. Meilin, Mala and Cassidy listened intently. Paul carried on talking about the story whilst the others conversed amongst themselves.

"So where are you from Craft?" asked Chris.

"I was born in the Deneb system before the war," Mon Craft started, "I went back after the war to see what was left. It's safe to say there wasn't much."

"Any family members left?"

"Only two, my sister and her son who live on Earth now."

"What about you Punky?" asked Richard.

"Why should I tell you?" he snapped.

"I'm just trying to start a conversation here."

"Ignore him, these guys are not the type to talk, so don't ask them about their lives," Mon interrupted.

"Well what about you Lovisa," Chris turned his attention to the blonde who was silently drinking, "You got any family?"

"I do, but nobody I can go back to," she said coldly.

"I won't ask."

"Good."

Chris washed the awkwardness away by downing the rest of his drink. A group of musicians took their places on the small stage and began playing a gentle melody, a young woman stood at the front of the stage, singing softly. She smiled as cheers from the crowd reached her. The Spartans listened to the band, they ordered more ale, and began drinking the night away. Later in the night the band finished their final song and had left, a fair number of Asmodians were also still drinking and conversing when the Spartans decided to leave. Cassidy pointed up into the sky, huge twinkling swirls like stars radiated out from what seemed to be the top of the beam of light, which was said to be the remains of the tower that held Atreia together. They gazed at the lights for what seemed like a lifetime, the solace and peacefulness was broken by the sound of engines thundering over the city. The group made their way over to the landing site, Mala was still hobbling along on crutches, she stopped to rest her injured leg.

"I guess Kasamoni's suggestion didn't work?" asked Paul.

"Maybe it only works for Asmodians," Mala said with a smile.

"Or old wives tales," Lovisa muttered.

Laura stood with her arms crossed, she seemed impatient, or annoyed.

"Where have you been?" she asked angrily, "A message was sent out two hours ago!"

"Sorry ma'am," Craft yelled, saying he was slightly drunk was an understatement, "We're jusht tasting the fine Ashmodian beverages!"

Laura looked at him in disgust, "How much did you have to drink?"

"Only a couple of pints… or maybe a dozen."

"You better sober up by the morning, otherwise Hecht is staying aboard the Infinity."

"Yesh ma'am!"

Mon Craft attempted to salute before stumbling up the ramp into the cabin of the Pelican, followed by Punky, Nova and Pyre.

"Orion! Vixen!"

The rest stood to attention.

"Get some rest, but be ready by dawn. The Asmodians want our help with some home security problems."

"Ma'am?" Mala asked tentatively, "What about me?"

"Stay aboard the Infinity, Vixen will go without you. Are you Ok with that?"

"Yeah its fine, it's not like I can do much anyway."

Laura gestured for the teams to board the Pelican, watching Mala as she went by. Laura knew what it was like to be out of action when the rest of your team was fighting, watching helplessly from the sidelines, at least Mala's team would still be alive when she recovered. Laura stepped aboard behind them and signalled to the pilot that it was clear to take off.


	12. Chapter 11 - Intruders in Brusthonin

**Hello again everybody! It's half term and I've got spare time so I finished a new chapter (obviously)! I may not be able to do much until the end of June but then again, I only have one exam which I am actually looking forward too because its on the best topics ever. Astrophysics and Nuclear Physics :D... Anyway as usual, enjoy and feel free to review and suggest characters to add!**

**Pablo signing off!**

* * *

Kasamoni swallowed the last mouthful of her meal as the camp was filled with the noise of dropship engines as two Pelicans circled round before coming in to land. The Settlers camp in Brusthonin was packed with Asmodians readying their weapons, the Spartans disembarked and the leaders made their way into the camp.

"Nice to see you could make it," Kasamoni greeted them, "Follow me, Watch Leader Dehen wants to speak with you."

Kasamoni led Mon, Meilin and Paul to the main tent, Dehen stood up and eyed them cautiously.

"Are these the Spartans I've heard so much about?" Dehen asked. Kasamoni nodded and took her place by the wall. A moment later Laura ran in to the tent, holding her robotic arm in her organic hand.

"Sorry I'm late," she said, "Somebody left without me."

The three sergeants saluted.

"And you are?"

"Spartan Lieutenant Smith, secondary commander of all Spartan forces aboard the Infinity."

"Then I'm sure you've heard about the situation here. The Elyos have used a rift to set up a beachhead here in Brusthonin, we need to push them back before they can get a strong foothold in Asmodae. The numbers are estimated to be between one and two hundred. It's safe to say we're outnumbered."

"Sorry to interrupt but you say you're outnumbered?"

"Yes, we only have fifty daevas here."

"But we're here! How can you be outnumbered?"

"Are you trying to say you could take on that army by yourselves?"

Laura pretended to think about it for a moment, "Yeah I think that's right."

The sergeants looked at each other in confusion, Laura doesn't usually act like this, or is it because she is finally getting some action?

"And how much damage are you going to do with one arm?" Dehen laughed raucously.

Laura ceased her cheerful cocky façade, she walked towards Dehen and she slammed the freshly polished arm into its socket. With a loud crack she punched the back of the chair next to his head.

"Don't you dare make fun of me," she said with gritted teeth, "We'll get rid of them, just you watch."

Laura walked out of the tent, followed by Paul, Mon and Meilin. Dehen was taken aback by the action, staring blankly into the distance, one of his servants ran over to check on him. Kasamoni quietly left the tent.

"Ma'am, you realise what you just did right?" Mon Craft asked.

"How are we meant to take on that many enemies?" Meilin added.

"I have an idea, just trust me," Laura replied.

Kasamoni ran after them, "Lieutenant Smith! What are you thinking?!"

"Sergeants! Prepare your squads for a low altitude insertion."

The trio saluted and made their way to the Pelicans.

"Now, what was it? Kasamoni? Take me to the defensive line I hope you guys have set up."

"S-sure, Levano! We're heading to the front!" Kasamoni shouted.

* * *

The frontline was built up of large barricades with daevas lining the large makeshift wall, ready for the impending attack, Kasamoni helped clear a space on the wall for Laura to stand. The structure groaned beneath the Spartan's weight.

"Are you guys ready?" she asked the squads.

"Orion is ready ma'am," Paul replied.

"Vixen is ready to drop," Meilin replied.

"Hecht is eager to go!" Mon shouted.

"Pilots, keep circling the area, when I give the order, enter the final insertion vectors. Fireteams, wait for the signal to jump from the pilots."

A chorus of acknowledgments came back.

"What are you going to do?" asked Kasamoni, Miku showed up behind them.

"Miku, what are you doing here?" Laura asked.

"Well it's not like I can do anything against organics so I thought I'd watch from here," Miku said.

"You didn't answer my question! What are you going to do?" Kasamoni asked again.

"I'm going to talk to them. If it doesn't work out, I'll use more forceful methods to get them to leave."

Before Kasamoni could protest any more Laura jumped over the barricades and started walking towards the gathering Elysean army. Asmodians called out to her, telling her to come back and that she was insane, she ignored them. The Elyos noticed the lone figure walking towards them, a woman made her way through the ranks of daevas, she had brilliant white armour that was covered in golden trimmings and details and a masterfully crafted golden staff topped with a shimmering blue crystal. The army readied their weapons. They shouted at Laura in another language, probably warning her to stay away, she kept walking towards them. She stopped about ten metres away from the woman.

"Asmodian?" the woman asked. Laura shook her head. "Elysean?" Laura shook her head again.

This woman was obviously the commander of the Elyos forces here. She removed her helmet to reveal the face of an angel, white hair that was slightly pink, pointed ears and shimmering blue eyes.

Laura sighed and released the pressure seal on her helmet. Slowly she revealed her face to the woman, the scar across her nose, the weathered hazelnut brown eyes, her strawberry blonde hair and her peachy skin which was just like the woman's.

"Human," Laura said. It was like meeting the Asmodians all over again.

The woman placed her hand on her chest, "Azriel."

Laura did the same, "Laura."

Azriel held a hand out, like she was trying to invite Laura to come with her, Laura shook her head. Pointing to the small rift she could see in the camp behind them, "Go," she gestured with a shooing motion.

Azriel looked at her, like she didn't understand the message. Laura pulled the Battle rifle off her back and aimed at Azriel's head, now she understood the message, Azriel shook her head solemnly. Laura put the helmet back on and sealed it.

"Pilots, it's time."

The roar of engines caught the attention of the Elyos. One Elyos ran forwards in front of Azriel towards Laura, three loud barks rang out and they fell down on the floor, they disappeared in a flash of light. Azriel shouted to her soldiers, then pointed at Laura, it was now or never.

Daevas armed with swords and shields, polearms and greatswords ran towards her. Laura gunned down three of them before they even got near, a polearm lunged towards her, she dodged it and fired at the wielder. Another one swung their greatsword at her, she grabbed her pistol and leapt over the blade whilst shooting at the attacker. Magic spells and arrows flew towards her now. The sound of a railgun charging up relieved her, Mon Craft blasted a group of sorcerers away as he fired his thrusters to slow his descent. The other Spartans followed with a chorus of wailing thrusters announcing their arrival. Meilin and Richard landed further back to provide sniper support, Lovisa beat several swordsman to death with their own weapons alongside Nova, Chris used his knives to kill several archers who didn't realise they had a slit in their throat until they began choking on their own blood. Paul and Keiran jumped into cover and suppressed a group of ranged soldiers, trading bullets with magic bolts and arrows. Punky, Pyre and Cass switched between close and ranged combat as they kept the enemies at bay.

Laura shot another Elyos in the head, she spotted Azriel near her camp, she dodged more attacks as she made her way through the battle towards Azriel. Breaking away from the battle she ran towards Azriel.

"What sort of leader are you?!" Laura shouted, firing at Azriel with two pistols.

"Ru mopi fa viit jgemr baqideI Laura," Azriel said back, before jumping through the rift which closed behind her. Laura threw her pistols on the ground and put her hands on her head in frustration.

"You could have at least tried to speak English you bitch," she muttered to herself. Richard shouted at her, a hooded figure leapt towards her, Laura tore the knife from its sheath under her arm. The figure jerked to the side as a bullet ripped through their stomach, falling to the ground in a fit of pain, Laura finished them off with a knife in the back.

A row of Elyos fell as a railgun slug tore through them, Mon Craft ducked under a blade, upper-cutting the warrior with the barrel of the gun. The attacker was quick to recover, lunging towards him again but failing to strike, he slammed a fresh slug into the chamber. The Elyos lunged forwards again, the blade scraping along Craft's forearm, a fist hit them hard followed by a strong kick to the stomach. Before they could fully recover the sound of magnetic coils charging rang in their ears, the slug punched right through the skull and several others behind, the remaining Elyos began to flee. Punky and Nova fired into them which killed another three.

Laura ordered them to regroup, looking at the carnage around them there wasn't any bodies, "Good job guys," she said.

"I'm sorry but I need to say this," Richard started, "If we have to fight them guys again I'm staying on the Infinity."

"Don't be stupid, next time we fight them we'll have the Asmodians on our side. This was just to prove our worth."

"I would've thought Orion did that yesterday when they killed that thing," Punky said.

"The Asmodians probably wouldn't believe it, so today we gave them solid proof. An army of them just saw what we did."

Laura led the teams back towards the barricades. Kasamoni and all the other Asmodians stared in awe as they tried to comprehend what they just witnessed. An army of daevas isn't an easy foe for the best of the Asmodian legions but the Spartans matched their power even whilst greatly outnumbered. As the group climbed over the barricades they were met with cheers and applause from the daevas, for once they were being grateful, Kasamoni, Levano and Miku met them on the other side.

"That was amazing! I didn't realise you were that strong!" Kasamoni squealed like an excited child, "What are you doing now?"

Laura turned to the group, "I think it's time we took a break, a frigate is taking some of the Asmodian government on a trip off planet and I've been able to get us on board."

"Could we come too?"

"Of course you can."

Kasamoni jumped up and down with glee, Levano shook his head, "Sorry, she gets really hyper sometimes."

The group boarded the Pelicans and made their way to the frigate waiting above Pandemonium.

* * *

Aboard the frigate the teams split up, Keiran led Paul, Richard, Chris, Kasamoni and Levano to one of the observation decks that were empty. Everybody took their seats, down below they could see the whole of Pandemonium, Kasamoni and Levano watched in wondrous silence.

"They're like two little kids," Chris joked.

"I can't wait to see them once we're in orbit," Richard added.

Kasamoni turned to them, "Where are we going?"

"Up," Paul said with a smile, "Where none of your kind has been before."

"Really?" Levano asked.

"Well now it's you two plus the government."

The ship rumbled as the engines pushed it through the atmosphere as they departed. Scenery passed by below as they flew over Asmodae towards the edge of the northern hemisphere, farmland and towns gave way to miles upon miles of rubble, they left flew out past the debris rings that surrounded the torn planet and into orbit. The ship rolled until the northern hemisphere looked like it was at the top of the planet, glittering in the distance was another planet barren and lifeless. A swirling vortex of light seemed to tether the two halves together, keeping them from drifting apart, Kasamoni and Levano stared intently at their home.

"That's Atreia?" Levano asked, his eyes still fixed on the planet.

"Yup, the top piece is Asmodae and the bottom is Elysea," Paul explained, "I have to say it is an amazing place to live."

"Really?" Kasamoni turned to look at him.

"Yeah, we live on the outside of our worlds, nothing like this."

"The only planets that are inside out were built ages ago and filled with things to ruin your day," Richard added.

"If only you and the Elyos could stop fighting," Keiran chuckled, "You could possibly appreciate views like this in the future."

Levano clenched his fist at the mention of Elyos and Asmodians co-existing.

"I agree," Kasamoni said, Levano looked at her in surprise, "I'm tired of this war."

"Kasa! Do you realise what you're saying?" Levano shouted, "The Elyos are our sworn enemy, we must defeat them."

"They're our ancestor's sworn enemy; it was just thrust upon us to fight as soon as we ascended. I've been fighting in the Abyss for over one hundred years! I know about what happened to your family, but even if we did defeat them then what? Fight the Balaur for another ten thousand years?"

Keiran was about to make a move when Paul put a hand on his shoulder and shook his head.

"We're Asmodians! Fighting is all we know!"

"Well I want to know more as stupid as that sounds! That's why, if the Infinity is able to leave, I'm going with them!"

Paul got up and stood between them before anything happened. Levano looked shocked.

"Kasamoni," Paul said, "You don't know what it's like back there. I understand why you want to come with us but…"

"You said that all the Humans were united! The only wars you were fighting were against monsters from different worlds."

"It's worse on our side! The Elyos, Balaur and Asmodians are in a constant deadlock with no one ever having an advantage. It's not like that on the other side."

"When Humanity was at war with the Covenant we ended up making our last stand at Earth, the only planet that wasn't completely glassed or occupied. The only reason we won is because we killed the leaders," Keiran added.

"But you won! You're at peace with these things now aren't you?"

"Technically we are but then the radicalised Covenant Remnant appeared trying to get all these ancient artefacts for some stupid reason and now there is a new enemy that just wants to kill everything larking about!"

"I have no quarrels about you coming, but it's just as bad on our side," Paul said quietly.

"And apart from what's been said I don't think people will see a blue skinned woman with medieval style armour, a sword with lava in the centre of it and giant black wings as a friend at first glance," Richard noted.

"No! I've made my decision and I'm sticking to it!" Kasamoni stamped her foot, "I'm going to show explore your universe with you guys and you can't stop me!"

Miku smiled and gave Kasamoni a hug, Kasamoni awkwardly hugged her back, her arms sinking through Miku.

"We'll look after you like you're part of Orion!" Miku promised.

"Then I guess I'll join you," Levano announced, "We can't have you representing the Asmodians."

Kasamoni playfully pushed Levano, "What do you mean by that?" she pouted.

"Nothing!"

Chris started laughing and the others joined in one by one until they were all laughing. Paul then took Miku out of the room.

* * *

He led her to a quiet room and gestured her to sit down. Paul sat opposite her and thought of how to say it to her.

"Miku," he began, "I've had an idea, as you know we have this problem with Aria back home and she seems to be pretty powerful."

"Where is this going?" Miku asked.

"If you're going to try and bring her round to her senses like you said you would, to be honest you'd stand no chance and I don't want you to die. So I'm going to give you the option, just like when I enlisted in the UNSC, would you use this?"

Paul held out a data-pad with designs for a suit of armour labelled Orion 1. It was white with light blue stripes around the edges of the armour pieces and a stripe on the shoulder. Two large boosters on the back, which could pivot and split into four smaller boosters, as well as thrusters around the ankle sections of the armour. The helmet had a dark blue visor and the contours of the helmet tapered into two fins pointing backwards and a crest that curved over the top towards the back. Underneath the armour was a body suit that was dark grey with blue lines from the chest plate down the midriff and arms down to the hands and feet.

Miku studied it for a while, flicking through the pages with details on each part of the suit, Paul sat back and waited.

"How would this help me against Aria?"

"Well it would protect you and from what I saw of Aria's armour it looks like she can fly as well so you'll be on a level playing field."

"But I'm trying to save her not kill her!"

"If you tried to get her attention in the gear you wear now she would cut you down without a second thought. I know it's a big decision to make, but I don't want you running in without any way to protect yourself against her or whatever she's gotten hold of to defend her."

"What do you think she's planning?"

"Well… I'd say that it had something to do with the Prometheans. Imagine it, the Prometheans with a fully conscious AI like yourself controlling them. It would be a massacre if Aria found a way to get them off the planet."

"I'll do it. If I don't save her, I'll kill her myself."

"Are you sure?"

"As sure as I was when you enlisted, I'm not leaving you."

"That's my Miku, give us a hug."

Miku sat down next to him and put her arms round his neck, resting her head on his.

"How are you going to make it?"

"One of the reasons I was accepted by the College was because I had experience with 3D modelling, so I guess I could model it myself though it might take a while. Shall we head back to the others?"

"Yeah, they'll probably have their minds in the gutter though."

* * *

Paul and Miku walked back into the observation room as the ship began to head back to Atreia, the room was pretty quiet apart from some small talk between them, Paul sensed that his squad was relieved for some reason.

"What's happened?" he asked.

"The Lieutenant came in when you two were busy and told us that we have a decent amount of spare time," Chris said.

Paul looked at Miku, "Well then, looks like I'll have some time to work on my new little project. What are you guys going to do?"

"Probably some War Games training or something," Richard said.

"I'm probably going to do some work, preferably alone," Keiran quietly noted.

"Maybe I'll help around Pandemonium or beat Richard's ass in War Games," Chris jested.

"Like hell you will," Richard retorted.

Paul turned to Kasamoni and Levano.

"What about you guys?" he asked.

"We'll probably do some errands around Asmodae until it's time to go. I might do some training as well ready for when a new portal to your world opens up," Kasamoni said.

"Why?"

"It will probably appear in the Abyss just like the one that brought you here and the Balaur haven't been doing much recently, the Elyos probably have plans too."

The frigate arrived back over Pandemonium and everybody went their separate ways.

* * *

Azriel stood in front of the High Generals of the Elysean Army. A host of commanders and their associates watched from the sidelines as Azriel was questioned about her actions.

"Azriel," one general said, "Why did you abandon our foothold in Brusthonin and leave your forces to die?"

"The situation required me to leave, the enemy were too strong," Azriel presented her argument, "These people who say they are neither Elysean nor Asmodian were too strong."

"What did they look like?"

"The one I had a good look at was almost a head taller than me, she had skin like ours and reddish hair. She had a scar across the bridge of her nose and… and…"

"How did she act?" asked another general.

"She was confident, she had walked across the no man's land by herself and didn't even flinch when our archers aimed at her. She looked like she had been in numerous battles before."

"She asked you to leave didn't she?"

"I shook my head and invited her to join us but she pointed some sort of weapon at my head. One of our assassins jumped in front of me and there were three loud bangs and he fell down dead. When he teleported to the obelisk I ordered the rest to attack then eleven more dropped out of the sky."

"And in the confusion you left."

"I panicked. I've never seen combat so one-sided to the outnumbered force. Twelve of them took down all one hundred and seventy of my men and women. The pink one, the woman, ran towards me but I jumped through the rift before she could get me."

"What is this about a see through arm?"

"Her left arm, just below the elbow wasn't like the rest of her body, it was bare metal like a skeleton. I can only guess she lost it in a previous battle."

"Commander Azriel! You have shamed the Elysean Army beyond recognition! You are to be demoted to the lowest rank and removed from your place in High Command."

Azriel begged for forgiveness, she fell onto her knees and sobbed her eyes out to the displeasure of the High Generals.

"However, you shall retain your rank if you can kill this 'Human' woman and bring her head or gain some honour in dying at the hands of a worthy opponent. If she slays you in battle, you will be thrown into a cell for the rest of your life."

Azriel wiped the tears away and stood up, "I'll kill that woman! You have my word!"

"We'll be watching you closely."

The lights went out and Azriel was left alone in the room, she had made a fool of herself in front of some of the most powerful leaders in the nation and it was that woman's fault. Azriel made for the forges to sharpen her blade and strengthen her armour, Laura would die at her hand.


	13. Chapter 12 - Fight for your home!

**Rawr! Finally another chapter finished! Big stuff happens then more other stuff happens and why don't you just read it already?!**

**As always, enjoy and feel free to give me feedback and your own characters you would like to see in this story.**

**Pablo signing off!**

* * *

A slight humming sound filled the cabin as the starliners engines propelled the ship away from Earth. Luka watched as the blue marble slowly shrunk away, sitting back she sighed.

"What's up Luka?" Rachel asked as she put down the brochure.

"Why are we going on holiday at a time like this?" Luka questioned her.

"What do you mean at a time like this? It's half term so we have a full week to enjoy ourselves and relax."

"Our friends are missing is what I meant! And anyway why did they have to come?"

A peanut flew over the seat in front of them and bounced off Rachel's head. Noah and Al peeked over the headrest.

"Sorry that was a wild one, we can't control them!" Noah said with a smile.

"Knock it off, you two are only here thanks to the four person discount offer," Rachel snapped.

Luka continued staring out the window.

Rachel, Noah and Al looked at each other, "Luka, we came on this trip for you," Al tried to console her, "Rachel has been telling us how much you've been worrying about them, we know about the constant news watching all night every night and the lack of proper food."

Luka glared at Rachel, "I thought you weren't going to tell anyone!"

"Keep your voice down, only Al and Noah know, they were worried about you, I'm worried about you," Rachel said calmly.

"We thought you might need some time to relax and recuperate, otherwise sooner or later your health is going to get worse as well," Noah added.

Luka crossed her arms and shut her eyes, "I don't need your help."

Rachel put a hand on Luka's shoulder, "Luka please, we've done all this for you. At least try and enjoy it, even if you hate us."

Luka opened one eye, "Fine," she huffed, "I'll try to enjoy it… I guess." She turned away and attempted to go to sleep.

The seatbelt light came on and an announcement was broadcast through the cabin, "Please return your seats to the upright position and make sure all luggage is secured, the ship will be entering slipstream space soon, you will be able to walk about once we're safely in the slipstream."

A blue light filled the cabin as the ship crossed into the slipstream with a violent rumble before the ship settled again.

The seatbelt light blinked off and Al and Noah poked their heads over the seat again.

"Anyway Haumea is said to be a really nice place, the resort looks fancy as hell as well," Al said.

"Whatever," Luka muttered as she turned to fall asleep again.

* * *

"Spartan Fireteams, Orion, Hecht and Vixen please report to hangar B-49 for transport to the surface," Roland's voice blared out through the ship, the Spartans gathered in the hangar, Laura was waiting for them.

"I guess you are all wondering what the commotion is about?" Laura asked. "Something has happened in the Abyss, they suspect it's a portal back to our world. We'll be moving out to Primum landing soon, the majority of daevas the Asmodians could summon are gathered there ready to fight."

"Why do we need them?" asked Punky.

"Because, Corporal, we need them. The Elyos are gathering their forces and we suspect they are going to push forwards too."

Laura looked at Paul for a moment.

"Lasky is aware that Kasamoni and Levano want to come with us and he has given them permission to join us, I'll leave you to tell them the good news. Also Miku why aren't you in your combat gear?"

"Sorry ma'am, Paul had a something in mind instead but he hasn't finished it yet," Miku stuttered.

"Well the body suit is complete but that is it. Though if we give you a standard issue marine EVA helmet and some body armour from a normal combat get up you could have an EVA capable setup," Paul said, rubbing his chin.

"I'll hear more about this project of yours later, get it done," Laura ordered.

"Yes ma'am!"

Paul and Miku ran off to one of the rooms nearby to sort things out.

"Everyone else, we're lifting off in twenty minutes!"

* * *

Paul filtered through the database on the terminal as Miku sat on the bench.

"I thought you said none of it was finished yet?" she asked.

"I meant the armour," Paul replied, "I finished the bodysuit a couple of nights ago."

He took a small data-pad from a pouch around his waist and tapped the screen. A grey bodysuit with blue stripes down the front appeared in front of him and fell into his arm. "Put this on."

Miku took the suit and began changing into it. Paul kept looking through the armoury database for the files of the gear he was looking for. Miku zipped up the suit up to her neck and sealed it.

"What do you think?" Paul asked, "Not too tight is it?"

"Not at all, it is a bit figure hugging though, this isn't some weird…"

"No way! It has to be like that to keep you streamlined in atmospheres, it also means you don't have pressure irregularities in space which could cause it to exploded around you and… yeah you get the idea. I could have made it much worse so you can get those nasty thoughts out your head."

"Well where is the rest of the stuff then?"

"I'm getting the files from the database now. Here we go, one EVA helmet and presidential bodyguard grade body armour."

Miku almost fell as the sudden weight of the armour dropped into her arms, placing the armour on the ground started strapping the armoured vest and the rest of the pieces on with the help of Paul, a few minutes later Miku was ready, her helmet under her arm.

"What if we go through that portal and don't go home?" Miku asked suddenly.

"I don't think it was coincidence that Kasamoni came to our world through a portal then we went into a portal and ended up where Kasamoni lives. I'm sure we'll be back in our home universe I guess you could call it."

"I wonder how the others are coping, news must have gotten about by now, Luka must be worried sick. She has been constantly worrying about me since we joined."

"I'm sure we'll be able to find them."

"Anyway, let's get out there and get to that portal."

Paul nodded and summoned a battle rifle for Miku, she slung it over her shoulder with it hanging in front of her, the couple made their way to the waiting Pelican which was now starting up its engines.

Orion's Pelican left the hangar and made its way to the Abyss gate above the Morheim Ice Fortress along with Hecht's and Vixen's. On the other side Kasamoni and Levano waited for them along with Captain Ralgorn. The Pelicans came through and landed on the deck, the squads disembarked along with Laura and weapon crates.

Kasamoni walked towards them, "Lieutenant, you are wanted in the command room."

"Spartans with me, let's see what we're dealing with," Laura shouted at the guys unloading ammunition and weaponry from the Pelicans.

Laura lead the group into the command room, they saluted the Asmodian commanders and took their places around the edge of the room.

"Nice of you to join us Lieutenant," one commander said.

"What do we have to do to get to that portal?" she asked.

"We'll need to get a team of Teleporters into Sulphur Fortress to expand the portal for your ship to get through; however the Elyos have decided to use this to their advantage and capture the Sulphur Fortress and they've got most of the daevas we've ever encountered gathering."

"So how are we going to discourage them?"

"Captain Ralgorn here will personally lead the charge against the enemy forces, we'll smash them into oblivion."

Laura stood there for a moment, contemplating the Asmodians plan.

"Is that it?" Paul asked suddenly.

"What do you mean?" another commander asked.

"Sergeant!" Laura snapped.

"Are you really just going to rush everybody in and hope for the best?" Paul continued.

"Do you have a better plan?" asked Ralgorn.

"A newborn child could devise a better plan. Leivers, projection unit please."

Keiran handed him the projection unit, Paul fiddled with the controls for a moment before placing it in the centre of the map spread out on the table. A three dimensional map of the lower Abyss appeared in the centre of the room, bathing everybody in a blue glow.

"Let's take a lesson from the Romans of ancient Earth shall we?"

"What sort of help is a two thousand year old civilisation going to be?" asked Lovisa.

"That two thousand year old civilisation was one of the largest empires at the time, Viveka. They had brilliant military organisation that nobody could hold a candle to."

"So how is this going to help us?" Ralgorn asked.

"The Romans fought using formations of men, the Legionnaires were their main frontline force who held the line against oncoming attackers, behind them they would have skirmishers who would throw javelins over their heads into the enemy as close range support and then archers further back to provide longer range support. Now we have soldiers with swords and shields right? If we organise them into units and make an advancing battle line across the islands like the Legionnaires, we can then put mages behind them as close range support troops like the Roman skirmishers and have your rangers acting the same way as archers did all that time ago."

"We could double up the lines of Templars and Gladiators to act as reserves if the others take too many losses," Ralgorn added.

"Exactly now if we get the assassins and some spare gladiators and keep them far back. We might be able to use them to get around the enemy and strike from the sides seeing as you guys can fly."

"Gentlemen, I propose we go ahead with this young man's plan."

"Everybody sort your troops into formations, this better work," ordered the Governor of Reshanta.

The commanders dispersed, Miku turned to Paul, "How on Earth did you know all that?"

"All those strategy games I played as a kid finally paid off," Paul smiled, "And you always nagged me to play with you instead."

Miku frowned.

"Spartans!" Laura shouted as she left the room, "grab a jetpack, you're gonna need it if you want to keep up with the daevas!"

* * *

A young girl with white and pink hair with a green cloak appeared from one of the other Abyss gates. An elaborate bow was strung round her chest, she observed the preparations until she spotted Kasamoni and Levano and began walking towards them. Chris spotted her as he checked his jetpack, "Who's that?" he asked.

"No idea," Keiran said, "A commander maybe?"

Kasamoni gave the girl a big hug.

"Or not," Keiran added.

Kasamoni led her over to the squad. The girl looked at them with a deadpan expression on her face, staring at each of them in turn before looking back at Kasamoni.

"Guys, this is Lunamarya, we call her Luna for short," Kasamoni introduced the girl. Levano followed up looking a bit concerned.

"Nice to meet you Luna," Richard held his hand out, Luna batted it away. "I was just trying to be friendly."

"Luna don't be rude!"

"They're pink skins, I'll never make nice with a pink skin for as long as I live," Luna muttered. Laura stepped out the back of the Pelican next to them.

"Have you got a problem with my Spartans kid?" she asked, leaning down to speak to her face to face. Luna backed away a bit, Kasamoni stood between them, apologising to Laura and telling off Luna.

"Orion! Are you guys ready yet? We're moving out in five minutes."

"What exactly are you guys putting on?" asked Levano.

Laura pulled him over to get a good look, "These are jetpacks, seeing as we're at a disadvantage because we can't naturally fly we use these things to help. They don't last long though because and don't have the thrust needed to keep us in the air long because of our weight, but Miku over there should be able to get some decent flight time out of it."

"Amazing, you guys are really good at the whole technology thing aren't you."

"Also, Sergeant Foulston! I thought you had something to tell these two?"

Paul looked up, "Oh yeah, we took your request to Captain Lasky."

Kasamoni and Levano looked at each other, "Well what did he say?" Kasamoni asked.

"He's allowed you to come with us."

Kasamoni jumped up and down with glee and hugged Paul, "Thank you!"

"Don't thank me, thank the Lieutenant here. She was the one who put in a good word for you."

Kasamoni looked at Laura, "Really?"

Laura smiled under her helmet and waved her hand, "It's nothing, but please no hugs."

Luna stamped her foot to get everybody's attention, "What do you mean she's going with you?!"

She stormed towards Kasamoni and reached up to grab her by the collar of her armour, pulling her down to her level, "Tell me!"

"A lot more lively now isn't she?" said Richard who shut up as Luna shot him a vicious stare.

"Luna calm down, I would've told you but I haven't been able to see you!" Kasamoni said, "As I think you have gathered, I want to go with these people back to their world and so does Levano."

"You're just going to abandon the war?! I've never seen such cowardice!"

"Excuse me but they already know the dangers of coming with us," Laura noted, "And I don't blame them, if I was forced to fight for an eternity without truly dying then I would want to leave too."

"You don't understand what it's like to have everything you love destroyed, you haven't been through that!"

Laura grabbed Luna by the neck, her chest heaving, "Wanna a bet? I lost my entire squad right in front of my eyes, this arm is a constant reminder of those days; our entire race was almost wiped out!"

"Lieutenant calm down!" Paul shouted, trying to free Luna from her grip. Laura shook her head and loosened her grip around Luna's neck; she looked around before heading off to finish fitting her jetpack.

"Sorry about that, Lieutenant Smith was in the Human-Covenant War and is one of the few surviving Spartan twos who went into battle. As you heard she is clearly affected by what happened back then. But hopefully the message got through to you."

Kasamoni put her hands on Luna's shoulders and looked into her eyes, "Luna, I'm sorry. We're still going. I understand why you want to fight this war. Fight on in your family's name and in ours."

Luna nodded and hugged Kasamoni, tears streamed down her face, Levano put a hand on Kasamoni's back.

"Fight like we taught you and if we don't see you before we leave, goodbye."

"Goodbye," Luna sobbed.

"Azphelumbra," Kasamoni whispered.

"Azphelumbra."

* * *

The newly reformed Asmodian army marched across the lower islands of the Abyss, the Elysean commanders reacted and ordered their army to advance on the Sulphur Fortress. Orion marched alongside the archers near the back of the force, Hecht and Vixen were situated further along the line, the frontline forces were about fifty metres in front of them.

Richard and Meilin walked ahead of the archer formations, their sniper rifles loaded and ready to fire. Somebody shouted from the frontlines, the Elyseans were on the move, Templars and Gladiators were charging towards them, the formations halted and raised their shields to form a defensive wall for the Elyos to throw themselves against.

Kasamoni held her shield in a tight grip, the Elyseans came towards them at terrifying speed, Kasamoni cast a defensive spell on herself. There was an almighty crash as shields and swords clashed; Kasamoni held her ground as an enemy clattered against her shield, lunging out with her sword she forced the tip into their chest. As soon as one fell two more filled their place, Kasamoni and her fellow Templars stood firm, arrows and magic spells flew overhead, landing behind and within their ranks.

"Looks like we should get to work," Richard said as he stepped out of the way of an arrow.

Meilin looked at him, "I've heard about your scores in rifle training," she grinned behind her visor, "But I'm still the best."

"That sounds like a challenge to me, I say we meet up and compare notches later. Good hunting."

"Straight to the point, I like that. Let's kick some ass."

Meilin sprinted away towards a rock formation, she fired her jetpack and landed squarely on top, seconds later she started picking off mages and archers. Richard ran the other way to another vantage point and began pounding the enemy with high calibre rounds. Asmodian archers and mages began firing back; the battlefield was a cacophony of clashing metal and explosions. Levano channelled his power through the ornate magical orb, he unleashed a torrent of ice bolts into the air, they rained back down like razor sharp rain cutting down multiple Elyseans. Orion, Hecht and Vixen added their firepower to the mix, forcing the Elyos back and easing the pressure on the Templars. Laura watched the battle unfold from atop a crystal formation. The Asmodian line was pushing forwards towards the bridge linking the Suplhur Fortress to the rest of the islands but the Elyos were putting up a fight.

* * *

As the battle progressed ranks of Templars fell back to rest as others took their place. The force was almost at the bridge but something seemed off. Kasamoni lay on the ground in the forward camp as more daevas marched by to join the fight, Levano sat down next to her, he was breathing heavily. Mon Craft threw the empty Railgun on the ground; Levano drank a vial of blue liquid and sat back.

"You guys alright?" Craft asked the pair.

Kasamoni lifted an arm up, "I'm used to taking a beating, it's what us Templars do. I just need to regain my strength."

"I've exhausted my mana, a couple and minutes and I'll be fine," Levano replied.

Keiran and Chris showed up.

"You guys empty too?" Mon Craft asked.

"Damn right, this SAW goes like an out of control popcorn machine!" Keiran removed the empty ammo drum and place it with other empty ammo clips.

"We need a resupply soon or the advance is going to slow down significantly," Chris noted.

"It's on its way Marshall, the Infinity is ready to come through any minute now," Laura shouted from her observation point.

"Thank god, I was starting to think I'd have to beat them to death with my fists," Craft jested.

As Laura observed the battlefield she spotted a figure, adorned in shimmering white and gold armour, wielding a staff and a magical tome.

"As soon as you're resupplied, push for the fortress, I'll meet you there."

"Where are you going?"

"There's somebody I need to take care of."

Laura leapt off the her natural watch tower and ran towards the front lines, past the archers, past the members of Orion, Vixen and Hecht who still had ammunition, past the sorcerers and spiritmasters. Engaging her jetpack she launched herself over the Templars towards Azriel.

"Azriel!" she shouted, knocking down Elyseans who got in her way. Azriel backed up a small hill and fired a ball of fire at the Spartan. Laura took the blast, her shields flickering as they burst. Grabbing the shaft of the staff, Laura pulled Azriel towards her and stunned her with a vicious head-butt. Asmodians pushed forward as the Infinity appeared in all her majesty above Primum Landing, resupply pods rained from the sky, the Spartans made their way to the front of the lines and began blazing a trail towards the bridge.

A streak of lightning crackled across the sky as a large bony structure appeared in the sky above the battle. Large brutish monsters with mucky red skin dropped into the battle, they were adorned with primitive armour and carried large clubs and primitive swords. The Asmodian line broke as the newcomers tore through them like a hot knife through butter. Laura watched the disaster unfold around her, Azriel used the confusion to kick Laura to the ground, she pointed the bottom of the staff at Laura's throat. Azriel smiled as the bottom opened to reveal a shimmering blade. Laura grabbed the staff and pulled the blade into the ground, she used her robotic arm to deal a couple of heavy blows before snapping the staff in half with a well-placed hit. Using the blade of the staff, Laura drove Azriel back until a club sent her flying.

"Lieutenant!" Lovisa shouted through the comm-link, "The line is breaking! What shall we do?"

"What are these things?" Richard shouted.

"I think we've met the Balaur!" Paul added.

Laura coughed violently, blood splattered against the inside of her helmet. She had a large tear in her undersuit across the left side of her midriff, "Push forward to the fortress. If we can secure it, we'll have a chance of getting home."

There was a pause, "Understood, let's take that fortress!" Paul roused the rest of the Spartans into action.

Laura smiled, she watched Azriel incinerate the Balaur that had hit Laura, she stood up uneasily. Azriel looked at her in amazement, but her wonder was short lived as she fired another fireball at Laura, she dodged it but was struck in the throat with the blunt end of the staff which followed. The orb embedded in the top of the staff began shimmering, ethereal energies swirled around it as Azriel pointed it towards the gasping Spartan, Azriel grinned from ear to ear.

"Avroh Eemm!" a voice bellowed from above. Levano between the women, he stood over Laura, his wings unfurled behind him. Azriel fired her charged up spell a split second after Levano landed, the beam of magical power impacted against a force-field Levano had cast and was dissipated within seconds. Azriel taken aback by the power of the shield frantically fired other magic bolts at him, Levano rooted Azriel to the ground with clumps of ice, he then flung his magical orb towards her, hitting her right between the eyes. Levano punched, kicked and clawed at Azriel, knocking her to the ground. He held the orb in his hand, the eyes of the skull glowed as red as his own eyes, he drew his arm back. Laura caught his arm as he plunged his orb towards Azriel's heart.

"Make your way to the fortress," Laura ordered, "I'll deal with her."

Levano reluctantly jogged away into the battle.

Azriel looked up, Laura pulled her knife from its sheath under her arm, Azriel lifted up a bloody arm. Blood started seeping from the breach in Laura's suit, as she approached she saw that Azriel was crying.

"Please… s-stop…" Azriel said slowly in what little Asmodian she understood, "I'm… beaten…"

"Why are you crying?" Laura coughed, "A warrior like you should be ready to accept death, it's not like you actually die as well."

"I… will be killed!"

"How?"

"A spell… makes my soul get lost in the… Abyss… no escape…"

"And I guess the only way to save yourself was to kill me?"

Azriel nodded.

"Your people… powerful…"

"If you're asking for help then I can't help you."

"No! Please!"

"We already have two Asmodians coming with us. It wouldn't end well bringing you along!"

"Then take my life… I won't resurrect… won't connect to the Obelisk… make myself lost."

Laura sighed, her vision went blurred for a moment, shaking it off she raised her knife. Azriel smiled weakly and closed her eyes, Laura plunged the knife into her heart and twisted the handle, Azriel groaned in pain for a moment before falling silent. Laura pulled the knife out and rolled onto her back, she stared up at the giant Balaur ship as Archer missiles blew it apart. Balaur, Asmodians and Elyos battled to the very limit of their abilities all around them. Laura closed her eyes and sighed.

* * *

Mon Craft took down a score of Elyos with a shot from his railgun, Punky caught a Balaur sword with his hand, kicking the thing's kneecap to bring it down to his level. He flicked the pin off a grenade and shoved it down the Balaur's throat and kicked it back into the crowd, a cloud of red mist covered the enemies, the force of the blast knocked some off into the endless depths of the Abyss. Nova and Pyre provided fire support from the gatehouse walls of the Sulphur Fortress.

Punky gunned down another score of attackers, "Are those teleporter people done yet?" he asked.

"Leave'em to it! We have plenty of ammo to spare with these guys," Craft replied.

A beam of light shot into the sky and turned into a huge portal.

"The portal is open!" Keiran radioed everybody.

"We can see that idiot," Punky shouted back.

"Spartans," Palmer said, "The Infinity is en route to the portal, Pelicans will arrive shortly to take you through the portal. Make sure all exits are sealed and… good luck."

A moment later two Pelicans landed on the central tower. The Spartans scaled the side of the tower using their jetpacks, Vixen and Orion boarded one Pelican and Hecht boarded the other, magic bolts and arrows struck the walls of the tower beneath them.

Miku looked around, "Where are Kasamoni and Levano?" she asked.

"Craft, Qiuyue? Have you seen them?" Paul asked.

"They were hanging around near Lieutenant Smith last time I saw them," Meilin replied, "Wait, where is the Lieutenant?"

"We'll find them!" Mon announced.

"What? We're leaving soon!" Meilin protested.

"We'll see you on the other side," Paul said quietly.

"Roger that, Mon Craft out."

Hecht's Pelican lifted off and began flying towards the battle, Meilin buried her head in her hands as they watched the Pelican fly away, the door began to shut and the dropship flew away from the tower.

* * *

On board the Infinity the crew were running to their positions, after the first portal the entire ship was ready for the transition, up on the bridge Lasky strapped himself into his chair. Palmer held on to the table next to him.

"Ready to go home everybody?" he asked the personnel on the bridge. A chorus of agreements echoed back to him, "Lieutenant James! Full speed ahead!"

"Aye Sir!" the navigation officer replied. His fingers danced across the console and the Infinity responded. The ship shuddered as it entered the portal, Palmer stumbled around slightly as the flickering energy of the portal lit up the bridge. There was a bright flash and the ship began to shake violently, officers started screaming and praying, some called out for their families.

"It's a bit bu-bu-bumpier th-than l-l-last t-t-time!" Roland shouted through the commotion, his speech began to worsen until it was complete gibberish. Lasky held tightly onto the arms of his chair and closed his eyes, he thought of his family as consoles around sparked and exploded.


	14. Chapter 13 - Aria's Might

**It's been a while! I realised that Noah actually was called Tyson at first but I'm too lazy to change things. He's staying as Noah!** **As usual enjoy and review, I've been trying to be a bit more descriptive, mostly because of all the gritty details in Legends of the Space Marines hopefully the content gets even more gritty and real!**

**Pablo signing off!**

* * *

The sun beamed down on the crystal blue water, exotic tropical fish swam about in the shallow bay and sea birds cried overhead. The idyllic scene turned to chaos as a foot splashed down as Rachel waded into the clear water, she fell backwards and floated on the surface, basking in the sunlight.

"This is the life!" she sighed, Luka tentatively sloshed towards her, wincing at the brief cold spell as she got deeper.

"It's certainly a beautiful place," Luka gazed at the purple gas planet on the horizon.

"Where are Al and Noah?"

Luka floated alongside her, "I think they were going to grab something to eat or something."

"As long as they don't cause any more trouble."

Luka chuckled and turned over and looked under the water.

"Luka!" She lifted her head up and looked for the source of the voice. Rin was running towards her with Len behind her.

"Rin? What are you guys doing here?" Luka asked her.

Rin splashed her as she struggled to reach the floor; the holographic water flew through the air.

"Sherry and Michal's parents took us all on holiday!" she said excitedly. Luka smiled and gave her a big hug. Len stood nearby awkwardly.

"Is it just you two here?"

"Noah and Al are around here somewhere," Rachel turned herself upright.

"I'm hungry," Len muttered.

Luka waded over to him, "but you haven't had a hug from me!"

Len tried to swim away but a hand caught his foot, Luka dragged him back and pressed his head against her chest, making him blush.

"Leave him alone Luka," Rachel giggled, "Let's find the others."

"We need to get money from mother and father first!" Rin said.

"Lead the way then," Rachel pushed her towards the beach.

They walked down to the end of the beach which was in front of the more expensive hotels, old people basked in the sun as they were served champagne by waiters from their hotels, some looked at Luka and Rachel snobbishly before giving them the cold shoulder. A couple were sunbathing , the woman was wearing all the latest fashions and expensive jewellery, the man was quite large and wearing disgustingly small swimwear. Rachel felt sick at the sight.

"Mama, papa!" Rin squealed as she ran up to them, the couple barely acknowledged her.

"What is it Rin dear?" the woman sighed.

"These are our friends, is it ok if we have some money to go eat with them?"

Luka and Rachel waved awkwardly.

"Fine, take Sherry and Michal with you as well."

"Thank you," Rin turned to the shoreline, "Sherry, Michal! We're going for something to eat, wanna come?"

A boy and a girl about the same age as Rin and Len ran up to them. The girl had her brown hair tied into small twin tails with little red ribbons, she wore a frilly swimsuit that her mother had probably picked out for her, her glittering green eyes were grossly exaggerated by the makeup she had on. The boy looked like his sister but was a lot less pampered, though he had a snooty attitude about him.

"Twins for twins?" Rachel whispered to Luka. Luka shrugged in return.

Michal walked up to them, "Who are you?"

"I'm Rachel, this is Luka, we're friends of Rin and Len."

"You don't look rich."

"So?"

"My father doesn't like people who aren't rich."

"We get by don't we Luka?"

Rachel nudged her with an elbow.

"Yeah, let's get something to eat then shall we?"

The group made their way along the beach, the twins chatted amongst themselves, occasionally Rachel and Luka tried to start a conversation but were put down by Michal's attitude. Sherry was much more open but Michal pressured her into stopping.

Al and Noah were stuffing their faces at a restraint on the beachfront, Noah waved them over, Al offered a piece of his food to Len. The group conversed for a while before the conversation took a turn for the worst.

"I…I guess you guys heard about what happened?" Rin said cautiously.

"Why are you bringing that up?" Len shouted at her.

"It's okay, it's obvious to be concerned," Luka muttered.

"Luka are you alright about this?" Rachel put a hand on her shoulder.

"You lot aren't worried about that stupid ship as well are you?" Michal snorted.

"Excuse me?" Noah spat as he tried to swallow his food.

"The Vocaloids have been going on about it all the time. It's just a bunch of gun toting maniacs like my father said."

"We have friends on that ship!" Al shouted, "they put their lives on the line so you can live happily with your family!"

"They also allowed people to stick things inside them to turn them into killers."

Noah slammed his fist on the table and stood up, he grabbed Michal by the neck, "You're asking for it kid!"

"Noah stop it!" Rachel snapped. Noah let go of the boy.

"You better learn your place! We're going to be here for a while anyway and I'd hate to be locked up for assaulting a child!"

"What do you mean by that?" Luka asked.

"Oh we forgot to say didn't we; apparently some weird thing is happening up in space so no ships are allowed to leave the planet."

"How could you forget to tell us that?!" Rachel moaned.

* * *

Aboard Halberd Station, Bostok lazily watched the radar display, it had been a rather slow day now that all civilian flights were grounded. There was no need for him to be there he thought, he rubbed his eyes as the blue light from the screen illuminated his face and the dark room around him. He spotted some unmarked blips appearing at the edge of the sector.

"Hey Williams," he yelled across the room, "Ask for ids from these ships that just entered the sector!"

"Give me a moment," he replied, "Unidentified ships, please state your identity, ship class and designation."

There was silence. Williams repeated the sentence. A burst of white noise and static startled him, he tore off his headset and rubbed his ear.

The blips were getting closer.

"Jones, get one of the UNSC ships to take a look, I'm just getting an earful of static."

"Sure," she nodded, "Halberd station here, are there any UNSC ships that are able to check out a group of silent unmarked ships?"

There was static for a moment, "What… are… they…" garbled transmissions trickled through, followed by a flood of panicked messages, "the Valerian is down!... we've got… wounded… life support has… hit… going down…"

"UNSC blips are disappearing! What the hell is going on out there?!" Bostok asked.

Before anybody could answer a searing hot laser of pure energy tore through the room, disintergrating Bostok, Williams and Jones in a brilliant orange light.

* * *

The group were silent as they finished their meals.

"Luka," Rin said quietly.

"What is it Rin?" Luka groaned.

"What's that?"

Luka followed Rin's finger, a huge angular object floated silently in the sky, other people were staring at it in silence. The surface was a shimmering silver colour with angular orange pulsing lines along surface all meeting up near the front. Suddenly a beam of orange energy was fired from the front, striking a hotel further down the beach, people ran in all directions as more lasers were fired.

"It's a god damn ship!" Noah stuttered, "Run!"

The group started running for the city, UNSC soldiers were deploying all over the place, ordering people to make their way out of the city. Thousands of small fighter craft poured out of the belly of the ship like a swarm of locusts, Broadsword fighters thundered overhead to meet them, the fighters weaved around each other in an intricate dance of death. Each side lost several craft, a score off frigate type ships appeared out of nowhere, their lasers tore through the UNSC squadrons like paper.

Promethean Knights started materialising on the beach, indiscriminately firing on anybody who was unlucky enough to be in their sight, troopers opened fire on the attackers as civilians ran for safety. Packs of crawlers materialised and leapt over the hastily erected barricades, clawing and firing at soldiers who were knocked down by their attack.

Noah led the group through the carnage, rubble came crashing down, blocking the way ahead. He led them into a shopping mall where they hid in the corner of a clothing shop.

"What are those things?" Al asked anybody who was listening. Rin sobbed as Len and Sherry tried to keep her quiet, Michal just stared into space.

"No idea, we've got to get out of the city," Noah whispered.

"How? There could be thousands of those things outside!" Rachel hissed.

Metallic footsteps and digital clicking could be heard in the distance, Noah urged them to be quiet, through the window he saw the large shell-like back of a Knight near the entrance of the mall.

* * *

There was a final rumble and the vibrations stopped, Lasky shook himself as he took note of his surroundings, officers were either slumped over their consoles or on the floor, Palmer was knocked out cold on the floor.

"Roland? You there?" he asked. Roland appeared on the holotable a moment later.

"Bit of a dicey moment there, a server fried and almost sent me into lockdown," Roland said with his usual cool demeanour.

"Where are we?"

"I believe we are near the planet of Haumea Sir."

"You sound concerned."

"They seem to be under attack from what I can gather, descriptions of their attackers match Promethean Knights and Forerunner battleships Sir."

"Sound the alarm, we're joining the battle."

"Aye aye Sir!"

"Did our Pelicans make it through?"

"Orion and Vixen's transport made it through, I'm unsure about Hecht though."

"Tell them resupply then head down to the planet to assist wherever they are needed."

* * *

Ten minutes later the Pelican was heading down through the atmosphere, explosions shook the hull as they passed by the warring ships in orbit around the planet.

"This feels more like home," Richard muttered.

"The fighting feels a lot more modern," Chris noted.

The pilot's voice crackled on the comms, "I'm picking up a distress call from somebody who picked up a dead trooper's radio. They're trapped in a mall far away from the defensive line."

"Orion will check it out," Paul announced, "Land us as close as you can."

"Are you mad?" Meilin protested loudly, "You'll be gunned down before you can even reach them!"

"Well aren't you an optimistic person," Paul chuckle pulling his weapon off his back as the rear ramp lowered. "Orion! Let's go!"

He leapt out into the street below, followed by Miku, Richard, Keiran and Chris. Once the coast was clear they moved towards the mall. Chris whispered through the comms, five hundred metres down the road was a group of Knights, the team hid behind ruined cars and piles of twisted rubble. They moved through a trashed shop, bodies of workers and tourists were strewn about, shot where they stood with no time to react. They left the other side of the shop, following the edge of the building down to the crossroads, checking for hostiles along the way.

"You think the Lieutenant and the others made it out?" Keiran whispered.

"Hopefully," Paul looked round the corner, "The mall is just over there, move out, ten metre spread."

The team crossed the road and stacked up at the entrance to the mall. A shrill digital shriek rang out, followed by a scream, Paul lead the others inside the Knight was probably calling others in the area.

* * *

Rin curled up in a ball and sobbed uncontrollably, Luka held her tightly as the Knight came closer it's scattershot trained on the two, Noah lashed out at it with a wooden chair he found. The Knight swung it's blade arm at him, smashing the chair into pieces, Noah coaxed the Knight away from the girls. It tried to stab at him, he crawled through a clothing rack and fell out onto the floor. The Knight loomed over him, pointing the scattershot right at his face, it paused for a moment.

A hand grabbed its blade arm, turning it around whilst yanking the blade from its fitting, the Knight shrieked and swung the scattershot at its assailant. A metallic tearing noise rang out, followed by solid _thunk_, the Knight fell to the ground and started to disintegrate, revealing a red Spartan standing in the aisle. Other Spartans entered the shop, Noah looked at the rapidly disappearing remains of the Knight, the red Spartan held out a hand to him. Noah grabbed his hand and the Spartan hauled him to his feet.

"Are you alright kid?" the Spartan asked. Noah was speechless, nodding violently.

A heavily armoured soldier accompanied the Spartans.

"Umm… eight of us Sir," Noah struggled to say.

The Spartan put a hand on Noah's shoulder, "We'll get you guys out of here."

Paul pointed the light on his helmet around the shop; he spotted Luka, Rachel and Rin hidden between to racks of clothes.

"I've found three here, and Miku," Paul reported.

"What is it?" Miku asked.

"It's Luka, Rachel and Rin. I don't think they recognise us so stay anonymous for now. We can always meet and greet later."

"I understand."

Paul squatted next to the girls, "Are you ladies okay?"

The muffling effect caused by the helmet was enough to distort his voice enough.

"Thank you," Luka sighed, "I thought we were done for."

"Where are the others?"

"I saw Len, Sherry and Michal hiding in one of the changing rooms," Rin whimpered.

_Must be Rin and Len's masters_ Paul thought.

"And Al jumped behind the counter I think," Rachel added.

"I'll get him, we'll get you guys to safety."

A shriek rang out as Keiran pulled back the changing room curtain, startling Sherry and Michal, Len sighed in relief and thanked Keiran for finding them.

They gathered by the counter. Paul addressed them, "We're going to be heading to an evac point at a nearby park, you'll be off the planet within the hour. Spartan Marshall here will lead you there whilst the rest of us cover you, if you spot any Prometheans, call out where they are and keep running. Got it?"

The kids nodded. Noah raised his hand.

"What is it?"

"Can I have a gun?"

"No!"

"Not even a pistol?"

"A Human with a weapon is a much bigger threat to a Promethean than an unarmed one, we'll draw their fire."

"Also, half of us aren't human."

"Which ones aren't?"

"Al, Luka, Rin and Len, they're Vocaloids. AIs as the army calls them."

"There is no difference, you are all getting out of here. Let's go!"

Chris lead the group out along the street, skirting along the edge of the building. Paul, Miku, Richard and Keiran followed them. As they made their way to the park a group of Prometheans opened fire on them, the team ducked behind cover, returning fire across the street which took out a couple of Knights.

"Miku, stay with Chris and the others, give them support," Paul ordered. Miku acknowledged the order and ran ahead. A pack of crawlers were climbing over a wall, preparing to pounce on the group, Miku slowed her pace and raised the scope up in front of her. She squeezed the trigger and used her shoulder to absorb the recoil like Paul had taught her, three crawlers fell, she fired again and another few were killed. Chris caught on to the gunfire behind him and swung his DMR round to nail the last few in the head.

Ahead there was a UNSC infiltrator with its rear ramp wide open. Fireteam Vixen was holding the line as evacuees clambered aboard the ship, a team of Knights appeared behind Miku and Chris, Chris shouted at the group to make a run for the ship whilst they held off the Knights. They gunned down the Knights and caught up to them, Paul and the others were right behind them. Rin tripped and fell behind as they ran towards the loading ramp. She got back up, the Spartans were gesturing at her to run, they fired over her head.

A lone knight watched over the battlefield, a voice spoke in its mind, "Capture the one named Rin," the voice ordered. Miku ushered the group onto the ship she turned and held a hand out for Rin. A mob of Knights and crawlers started attacking their flank, Orion focused their fire on the new attackers, sensing its opportunity the Knight teleported. Rin felt a strong metallic grip around her, she couldn't move, even though she didn't want to she looked up. The armour plated face of the Knight looked down at her, Miku ran towards her firing her battle rifle, a Watcher blocked her shots with a hardlight shield and gave the Knight time to teleport away, with Rin. Miku watched as Rin looked right into her eyes, tears welling up, Paul and the others turned to see Rin disappear.

Len ran back out, shouting for his sister, Miku grabbed him as he tried to run past her. Vixen and the rest of Orion were retreating back up the ramp, Miku wrestled Len back up the ramp and threw him onto the metal floor. The Infiltrator lifted off and the ramp began to close, shutting out the carnage of the losing battle below. Len screamed with anger and sorrow, Miku tried to hold back the tears, she punched the wall and sank to her knees.

* * *

The iconic thunderclap echoed through the ship as it entered slipstream space. Paul helped Miku to her feet and held her for what seemed like an eternity.

"Why?" Len sobbed, he looked up at Paul, "You said you would get all of us off the planet!"

Sherry helped Len up to his feet.

Paul didn't know what to say.

"Answer me!"

Len swung at Paul, a black glove grabbed his wrist and threw him back. Miku placed a hand on his shoulder and slapped him hard across the face.

"We'll get her back!" Miku shouted. Len looked up in astonishment. Rachel and Luka looked up at the sound of the voice, even with the muffling effect of the helmet it was still clear who it was.

"Miku?" Luka asked, "Is it you?"

Miku removed her helmet and let her turquoise hair drop down, "It's been a while hasn't it?"

Luka welled up, running towards Miku and embracing her.

"Then that means!" Noah pointed at Paul.

"The one and only!" Paul said, fist bumping Noah.

"Can you promise that?" Len asked.

"We'll do all we can to get her back. Right Paul?" Miku reassured him.

"Of course! But I have to ask you this, did any of you guys sense another Vocaloid around?"

"I felt the same aura that I felt back on Daneeion, but it's much more powerful this time."

"I kinda felt a nasty tang in the air when that big ship showed up in the bay," Al added.

"Come to think of it so did I," Luka mentioned.

Paul sighed, Miku looked at him for an answer.

"It isn't proof but it's a good clue," Paul deduced the information in his head.

"Do you think it could be her?" Miku asked.

"Who?" Luka questioned them, her face etched with concern.

"Until we have visual confirmation I can't tell you anything in case I mislead you," Paul said worryingly. A groggy silence fell over the group at his words, around them people were huddled together, some had wounds inflicted by the Promethean Lightrifles and Suppressors. The recycled air was permeated with the rotten stench of clotting blood and sweat, they shivered as the cold air flowed over them. Crewmen were handing out rations and tending to wounds among the masses, they tried their best to act calm in front of the civilians but to no avail, they had just lost an entire planet within a day, how could they be calm?

Paul, oblivious to the environment around him looked down at the group, they had no chance to gather any clothes when the attack began, now they were beginning to shiver in the cold recycled air, "Find some blankets to cover these guys up," he ordered.

Keiran grunted, "I might have to sit out on that order." He lifted his hand away from his stomach, laser had gouged through the side of his exo-suit and left a small bloody groove along his left side, blood dripped from the wound and his hand. Luka covered her mouth in shock, Rachel stared at the yellow Spartan in disbelief whilst holding Sherry and Michal, they were said to be indestructible yet in this situation they looked just like any other person.

Noah got to his feet, "Are you alright?"

Keiran waved him away, "It's barely a scratch."

"Take a rest then, let the biofoam injectors do their job," Paul lowered him to the floor where he rested against the wall. The others gathered around him to make sure he wasn't in any pain. "You guys, don't let him get up, we're quite stubborn when it comes to wounds."

Paul and the other Spartans left to search for stuff to keep the others warm. Miku paced back and forth across the deck.

Keiran looked up at her, "I guess Paul's project is coming along well?"

Everybody turned to look at her. Miku stopped and looked back at them, "Barely, only the exo-suit is finished, when did Paul tell you about it?"

Before he could reply Luka was standing up on her knees, "Let's see it!"

"But it's cold in here."

"The suit has a hydrostatic gel layer just like our suits… only your head should feel cold."

"How do you know?"

"Paul came to me to proof read the designs. Amazingly there were only a few tweaks needed, much less than what I expected from him, then again he was a bit of a nerd when it came to physics and space stuff."

Miku sighed and unclipped the temporary armour plated vest, dropping on the floor with the rest of the pieces, she stood in front of them in the exo-suit, the power couplings and blue power stripes were dormant and dark.

"Do you feel any different?" Keiran asked.

"Apart from feeling like I'm naked…no, I don't feel any different."

"I don't feel like that I'm when only in my exo-suit."

"But yours is really bulky with those muscles and stuff, mine is really slim and figure hugging."

"Well we aren't meant to fly, if we did it probably wouldn't be a graceful thing either, but the suit you will wear is meant to fly hence the need for drag reduction."

Al looked at Keiran's exo-suit, "I'm sure it would be slightly graceful to see a Spartan fly."

"Nah, we drop like lead bricks. Only these thrusters on the back keep us from becoming Spartan pancakes when we jump out of Pelicans."

Cassidy stopped by as she walked around the room, noticing Keiran's wound she knelt down to take a look, "Do you need help with that Leivers?"

"I'm fine Wright, the biofoam is doing its job now."

"We'll be leaving slipspace and docking with the Infinity soon."

Sherry muttered something under her breath. Rachel urged her to speak up, "D…do you know if our mother and father are safe?"

Cassidy looked at the floor for a moment, the pressure seal hissed and she pulled off her helmet, "Tell me their names and I'll try my best to find them," she said with a smile.

"Walter…and…Me…Melissa Ferngate."

Cassidy ruffled Sherry's hair, "I'll look for them." She stood up and carried on walking.

* * *

There was a dull _thunk_ as the docking clamps seized the ship and settled it on the floor of the large hangar. The front ramp lowered and light filled the room from outside, refugees shuffled down the ramp and into the checking system marines had put in place to take a measure of how many people had gotten out and who hadn't so next of kin could be informed.

Palmer watched the broken souls walk by, she felt a strong sense of guilt hanging deep in her heart, she was out cold for nearly an hour after they had arrived whilst people on the planet below were being slaughtered. She looked over to the ramp to see the Vocaloid and the eight Spartans of Orion and Vixen slowly walking down the ramp. They lined up and saluted in sync.

"It's nice to see you got off the planet safely," Palmer solemnly spoke, "What was it like down there?"

Nobody wanted to reply, they just looked at their feet silently, Palmer could understand the situation just from their body language. "Lead this group to the emergency billets on deck 42 then head to the armour bay. You deserve a rest."

The Spartans left to lead the group away, Paul and Meilin stayed behind.

"Sergeants?"

"Uh…" they both began, Paul allowed Meilin to speak, "Did Hecht and the Lieutenant get through?"

"Barely, the Lieutenant is in intensive care right now, Sergeant Craft and the rest of Hecht are helping out in the emergency billets."

"What about Kasamoni and Levano?" Paul asked.

"They were found defending the Lieutenant when she was incapacitated. The Captain is currently debriefing the higher ups on what happened, as well as introducing them."

"Fair enough, thanks Commander."

The two sergeants left to join the others, Luka, Rachel, Noah and Al watched them walk away. The Spartans led the group down the hallways to the elevators, going down in small groups with one Spartan per group. Chris was the last one to reach the deck 42 the others were waiting for him in the corridor.

"Sherry! Michal!" a voice called out. Len winced as they didn't bother calling out his name or his sister's. Walter and Melissa ran down the corridor, they were restrained by Richard and Meilin, to which Walter boldly protested. Cassidy ran over to Sherry and Michal.

"Are they your parents?" she asked softly.

Sherry was beginning to tear up as she nodded. Cassidy ushered them on until they began to run towards their parents. Len slowly walked along behind them, Miku put a hand on his shoulder and walked with him. Richard and Meilin let go of the couple and let the family have their moment together. The remaining refugees found spots to settle down and were left to their own devices, Miku pushed Len over to his family enthusiastically much to his displeasure, Rachel and Noah begged Paul to stay with them.

"Papa!" Sherry cried, "Rin is gone! One of those things took her before she could get on the ship!"

"It's okay it's only a Vocaloid, you still have the other one don't you?" Walter sighed.

"That's my sister you're talking about," Len muttered. Miku stopped as she began to walk away.

"It's not like you're real, you're just a computer. You can't even pick anything up."

"We're not organic but we still have feelings!"

"Shut up, only Humans can have feelings!"

Miku walked right up to Walter, "Maybe only Humans can have feelings, but what does that make you? Somebody who doesn't treat a Vocaloid like a person, somebody who doesn't care if one of us is taken or killed? We may only be simulated Humans built to sing, but our creators put us in the hands of masters who are caring and considerate! People who don't see us as machines at all but as people! If you show no feeling for our friend who was taken… you aren't Human at all!"

Walter stared at her in astonishment. Miku inhaled heavily, tears streaming down her face, no one had ever seen Miku like this her usual personality as a clumsy childish girl seemed like it was another world away. Walter scoffed and carried Sherry away with Melissa pulling Michal, Len followed them, he turned back and mouthed "Thank you." Paul led Miku to the elevator. The other Spartans followed them, ready to remove the armour they had been wearing for over two weeks.

* * *

There was a flash of light and then perpetual darkness. Rin's eyes slowly adjusted to find herself in a dimly lit corridor leading on to what looked like the bridge of a ship. A large window in the distance captured the image of Haumea burning below. The Knight that had brought her here skulked away. Getting to her feet, Rin made her way to the room ahead. A dark figure was standing on the balcony overlooking the bridge filled with Knights below. A large staff with a halberd style blade on one end and a built in binary rifle on the other was resting against the railing next to them. Rin stopped in fear.

The figure turned round.

The armour was dark purple with pulsing orange lines in an angular pattern, the torso seemed to stick out around the back like a thruster pack, thrusters could be seen on the legs around the ankles as well. The helmet folded away to show Aria's face.

"Ah, Rin," she smiled, "How nice of you to join me."


	15. Chapter 14 - Down-time

**Hello everybody! So... dat Pacific Rim! It's beautiful, especially to a mecha freak like me! Anyway, things getting mighty serious in Fireteam Orion's world, Aria is such a meanie. As always, have fun reading, drop a review if you want and I'll bash out the next chapter soon (hopefully...)**

**Pablo signing off!**

* * *

Keiran relaxed on his bunk as he typed away at the data pad, punching new lines of code and running reboot commands to spark the signal he needed, he could taste the success hovering just out of his reach. They had been given a brief period of down time as the ship made its way to nearest system, the slipspace drive was still cooling down after the emergency jump from Haumea which restricted the ship to slow conventional space travel while it the drive was cooling down, however it gave them time to get the refugees settled in, wounds tended to and repairs finished.

Richard and Chris had gone down to the War Games suite to 'unwind' as they had put it. The others had just ignored their flawed logic and let them go, Paul had gone to hurriedly create the next pieces of Miku's armour whilst she had gone back to see Luka, Al, Noah and Rachel, the members of Vixen and Hecht had just vanished after leaving the armour bay, most likely to acquire some hard earned rest.

The leg plating shown on the screen was starting to come together, checking it with the designs he had drawn up Paul made some small adjustments to the shape, as he went through each armour piece he had painstakingly modelled them exactly to the designs. Sometimes he had to change the flow of the curves and the placement of connectors, even ignoring the designs completely for certain pieces. He was so caught up in his work that it took a sharp high pitched shout from Miku directly into his ear to answer her.

"What is it?" he spoke into the earpiece.

"Can we take the guys on a tour around the ship?" she asked in a cutesy voice, attempting to sway Paul's decision.

"The refugees aren't meant to leave deck 42, it's the rules."

Miku groaned loudly.

"But it's dull down here!"

"Do you know how much trouble I could get into if I was found giving refugees tours of the ship?"

"Then be extra sneaky."

Paul facepalmed and shook his head, "I'll be down in minute," he sighed.

* * *

Miku and the others stood eagerly at the elevator, the doors slid open and Paul ushered them on, giving a stern warning to Miku while he was at it.

"Well where do you want to go?" he asked.

"How about where you keep your armour?" Noah asked.

"No, it's Spartans and our technicians only."

"How about the observation deck?" Miku suggested.

"Fine. But I'm taking you straight back afterwards."

Everyone apart from Miku nodded in agreement. It felt like Miku had forced them into coming just like she had done to him.

They made their way to the observation deck near the front of the ship, Paul dreaded every step from the fear of walking into one of Vixen or Hecht's team members or even worse, Commander Palmer. The door to the observation deck was shut, he wished there was nobody in there as he pressed a button to the side of the door to open it, thankfully there wasn't as the group rushed in like hyperactive children. The door shut behind as they entered. The ship was passing a large gas cloud, Paul instantly cast away his regrets as the spectacle shone brightly in front of him, awakening the astronomy loving child inside of him. Stars shone brightly as they flickered into life of the millennia and white hot gas flew out in all directions. The others gazed on in wonder at the site alongside him.

The door slid open behind them, Paul's heart sank as it almost wholly guaranteed his punishment.

"It's beautiful!" A familiar voice squealed. Kasamoni ran to the window, scaring the living daylights out of the two vocaloids and their masters.

"Kasamoni! You made it!" Miku ran into her arms. Levano walked in and gave Paul a firm handshake.

"So Palmer was right," Paul laughed, "Sergeant Craft did manage to pull your asses out of that mess."

"Yes it was close," Levano struggled to speak in English.

"I also heard about Lieutenant Smith."

"I got there just in time. If the aether currents hadn't been in my favour she probably wouldn't be here."

"She'll be fine now."

Rachel edged closer to Paul, "Paul?" she stuttered, "Who are these people?"

"Oh, just some friends we met on the other side of the portal, it's a long story." Paul gestured towards the two Asmodians, "Kasamoni we met when she fell into our world, then stuff happened and we ended up in her world, where we met Levano."

Kasamoni held out a hand, her claws shimmering in the light, Rachel tentatively grasped her hand. Noah and Al started talking to Levano, asking tons of different questions.

"Easy guys, Levano is still learning English. Sorry Levano, that's Noah and that's Big Al but we just call him Al, he's a Vocaloid like Miku. So is Luka over there."

"It's fine."

Rachel let go of Kasamoni's hand, the claws made her shiver slightly.

"Sorry, our hands are a bit different to yours. We lived in a pretty rough world."

"It's fine, the bony fingers just creep me out a bit, why are you wearing all that stuff?" Rachel looked at her armour.

"Compared to your Spartan friend and the others, Asmodian technology is nowhere near UNSC technology. We rely on magic, swords and bows."

"But you don't look like a wizard?" Noah said.

"I have barely any magic ability what so ever apart from a couple of defensive shields powers. But Levano is a fully fledged Spiritmaster."

"Can you do a spell?" Al asked.

"Not without breaking something I don't even know if my powers work here."

"It's worth a shot. Don't you have a shield spell or something?" Paul asked.

"I guess I could try and cast Stone Wall."

Levano went into the correct pose to cast the spell, the ornate black skull hovered between his hands, he shouted the mantra and a brief wall of energy appeared before turning invisible.

"Did it work?" Kasamoni asked.

"Somebody hit me."

Paul drew his fist back and lunged forward, his fist connected with an invisible shield as hard as iron, he reeled back.

"Son of a bitch!" He grunted as he held his fist. "At least your powers work."

"Do you think that means our other powers will work?" Kasamoni asked.

"You mean the whole sprouting from your back thing? Probably."

"I think we should save that for another day."

"We'll test it out in the War Games suite someday."

Paul checked the time, "Crap you guys gotta get back before somebody notices."

"Aw come on! It's only been like ten minutes!" Miku complained.

"Yeah, ten minutes too long as well."

Miku pouted and crossed her arms. The others just ignored her protests and followed Paul and the daevas out the room. She reluctantly followed them. As they walked through the corridors they passed the infirmary. Paul stopped for a moment before turning to enter, the others followed suit.

Paul walked up to the desk, "Hi, how is Lieutenant Smith doing?"

"Hold on for a moment," the nurse checked through the records for a moment, "She's still in intensive care but she's conscious. You can go see her if you want. Just down the ward and on the left."

"Thanks."

Paul and Miku walked down to the far end with Kasamoni and Levano behind them, tentatively followed by the others. Paul drew back the curtains to find Laura, half asleep on the bed, a breathing pipe in her mouth. A mess of bloody bandages were wrapped around her abdomen, battered armour and torn pieces of exo and under suits were situated around a trolley with used surgical tools on them.

Laura's eyes registered that somebody had entered the cubicle. She looked at them, her head unable to move due to the neck brace around her neck. Kasamoni and Levano waited at the edge of the cubicle, holding the curtain back, the others poked their head through to take a look.

Laura tried to speak but Miku stopped her.

"Looks like you took a beating," Paul said quietly. Laura was able to pull off a vague smile. "Apparently Levano saved your sorry ass."

Laura lifted her arm up and pointed at Paul and then made an 'ok' sign.

"We're fine, this is the first time we've had to relax isn't it."

Miku nodded, "Sadly it seems something or someone is in control of the Prometheans."

"Let's not give her bad things to think about while she's stuck here."

"Sorry. At least we were reunited with our friends."

Laura gave a thumbs up.

"We better get going," Paul got up to leave, stopping before he left, "And that project we're working on, we'll show you it when it's finished."

"Get well soon," Miku got up and softly wrapped her arms round Laura the best she could, standing up straight she saluted and left the cubicle. Levano and Kasamoni disappeared with the others and Paul saluted before leaving. Laura waved weakly and shut her eyes again.

Back out in the corridor Luka spoke out, "Who was that?"

Paul looked back as he led them to the elevator, "Lieutenant Smith," he muttered, "She's Orion's operator, she plans our operations and makes sure we follow the plans. It's a tough job, we're considered loose cannons around here, but it gets results."

"Is she a Spartan like you guys?" Rachel asked.

"An older generation. A Spartan II. You might have heard of them."

"Weren't they the ones kidnapped when they were younger?" Noah looked around, "I heard clones were put in their place so the family never knew."

"That era of the Spartans is over. All the Spartans you see on this ship apart from the Lieutenant are Spartan IVs, we're all volunteers."

"That must be awful," Luka said, barely a whisper, "Her family don't even realise that their daughter is fighting in terrible battles like Haumea."

"That's the life of a Spartan. Kill until you are killed, or live long enough to be able to retire."

"I bet not many get to retire?" Al attempted to joke.

Paul ushered them into the elevator, "Not one of the Spartans I know of. Apart from the Chief, he's probably earned it."

"I've heard of him."

"Everybody has heard of him, he was the one who mostly single-handedly stopped the entire Human-Covenant War."

"He sounds like a great warrior," Kasamoni spoke with bemusement.

The elevator stopped at and the doors opened to reveal deck 42, Paul ordered Kasamoni and Levano to stay put while he led the others back to their spot.

"Hello ladies and gentlemen," Roland's voice blurted out through the speakers throughout the deck, "It's a bit of a late announcement but whatever, welcome to the Infinity! I'm the ship's AI and my name is Roland, so how were your holidays before it all went down the drain?"

"Roland shut up!" Paul shouted at the ceiling, seeing the unease Roland was causing.

"Sorry Spartan, too soon?"

"Slightly," he replied sarcastically.

"Anyway, do you know where Kasamoni and Levano are? We have news for them."

"They're at the elevator waiting for me."

"Bring them up to Briefing Room 4, the Captain wants to talk to them."

"Will do," Paul looked at Miku, "You coming or are you staying here?"

"Me and Kasamoni are having a training session later, she said she's going to teach me how to use a sword and shield, I thought it might come in handy for the project," she said proudly, happy that she had the initiative to go through with it. "So I'm going to go get changed into the exo-suit, to get used to moving around in it."

"Alright then, will you guys be fine?"

"We'll manage," Noah gave him a thumbs up, "We don't want to keep you from working."

"I'll come back down in a bit, help out the guys looking after you."

"Sure."

"Bye Luka!" Miku leapt on Luka and gave her a friendly hug.

* * *

In Briefing Room 4, Kasamoni and Levano stood to attention until Lasky ordered them at ease. Outside Paul waited, along with Keiran who had decided to leave his room before he lost all knowledge of how to walk, idlely talking to one another. Lasky closed the file on the table in the centre of the room.

"The Office of Naval Intelligence needs to make sure they can trust you guys, I put in a good word for you and spoke about your actions before coming here, but they're sending somebody to keep an eye on you for a couple of weeks."

"Who will it be?" Levano asked.

"They need an unbiased opinion so nobody on this ship who worked with you is allowed. I want you to be on your best behaviour whilst on board the ship, also thanks to this sudden war we're going to have to ask you to fight again. It's up to you of course. Your investigator will fight as well, and take it from me, he's one tough soldier. If you fight as well, you'll be put under the command of Spartan Foulston, due to the experience you have had with that team."

"Sorry for being persistent Sir, but who will the investigator be?"

"You'll know him when you see him. We'll be arriving in the Arcadia system soon, reports of Promethean scouts on the edge of the sector has forced the UNSC's hand."

"Okay Sir, thank you for giving us this chance."

"No problem, dismissed."

* * *

Paul and Keiran stood upright as the couple left the room, saluting when Lasky left, Keiran noticed that Kasamoni looked nervous.

"What's up?"

"Apparently they don't trust us," Kasamoni was wracked with nerves, "they're sending somebody to investigate us."

"Who doesn't trust you?" Paul asked.

"Some office or something."

"Ah, ONI. That's normal. Anything they don't know about scares them. Just behave yourselves and act how you did when we were back in Asmodae. Miku is waiting for you down in the gym by the way, I wouldn't keep her waiting. She gets very moody when you make her wait."

"What about you Levano?" Keiran asked as Kasamoni walked by.

"I think I'll just relax in that observation room again, and practice my English."

"Sure, we'll see you around."

* * *

Paul and Keiran made their way to the tram systems discussing random things along the way, the tram doors shut and carried them away down the tunnel to another part of the ship where they disembarked and waited for an elevator, the lights of trams passed by as they carried personnel around the ship. The elevator arrived and the pair waited whilst people poured out the doors, pressing the button for deck 42 the guys leant against the wall of the elevator.

"Paul," Keiran started, "How's your project coming along?"

Paul stood upright and paced around a bit, "The leg armour is complete, and so is the torso armour, all that's left to do are the arms, the adaptable thrusters and the weapons."

"What about the Prometheans?"

"What about them?"

"Come on we both know what I mean!"

"There are hints from what Al, Luka, Rin, Len and Miku felt when on the planet. But as I said to them, without visual confirmation I'm not concerned."

"Fair enough, though I feel we may find out soon enough, we're heading to Arcadia. Reports say there are Promethean ships on the edge of the sector."

"How do you know that? It would've been announced to the entire ship by now. Did you get it working?"

"On a very basic level," Keiran whispered.

"I also guess that is where we'll be meeting the Asmodian's investigator?"

"Probably, the only problem I have with the whole thing is we have a ship full of refugees and we're going to war with them onboard."

The elevator doors slid open and the familiar stench that had permeated the small hangar of the Prowler class ship wafted through, trying their best to ignore it they walked over to the marine in charge of the shift.

"Hey is it alright if we help out?" Paul asked as he approached.

"Spartans? Sure we're just handing out the last of the rations, grab a case and start at the far end and work your way along until you run out."

"Yes Sir."

Paul picked up the largest case and easily carried it away, Keiran followed him, "I'll take this room, you take the other," Keiran said.

Paul chuckled, "I thought I was the one who gave the orders?"

* * *

Lasky watched the blue oasis of Arcadia slowly approaching, the glare of the star behind dulled by the polarised glass, Roland appeared on the holo-table.

"Captain, we're approaching Arcadia," Roland spoke.

"Get Palmer to prepare the Spartans," Lasky said quietly.

"Your behaviour suggests that you're worried about going into battle with our current payload."

"Of course I am, why weren't we ordered to take the civilians somewhere else first?"

"ONI is probably shitting their pants causing them to make irrational decisions… Sir."

"Whatever, the Infinity is now entering Sigma level battle-stations, give the refugees a briefing on what will happen. And don't scare the crap out of them."

"Aye Sir."

* * *

Keiran shut the empty rations case as he heard heavy footsteps coming down the corridor, Paul handed the last few rations to their friends and shut the case, Noah, Luka, Rachel and Al looked up as the door slid open. Commander Palmer stood in the doorway, fully suited up in her white Scout armour, Paul and Keiran snapped to attention. Len slowly made his way over to them.

"Marshall and Compton said I might find you here," Palmer started, "Suit up, we're being deployed to Arcadia. I'll tell you more later… and get Marshall to stop flirting with me before he gets hurt."

"Yes ma'am," Paul saluted, Palmer nodded and left the room.

"Wait!" Len shouted. The three Spartans turned to look at him, Luka got up and went to pull him away. "You're going to get Rin back aren't you?"

"Who the hell is Rin?" Palmer scoffed, folding her arms.

"A Vocaloid like Miku, she's Len's sister," Paul whispered to her. "She was taken by a Knight on Haumea as we began to lift off."

"Does this tie in with your theory?"

"Only if we get visual confirmation. But I believe Rin is still alive, as a prisoner probably."

Palmer dismissed Luka, who was struggling to pull Len away, and knelt down in front of Len.

"I can't promise anything, we have bigger problems, but hold on to the thought she is still alive. When we have time, I'll get my best guys on it, I promise."

Len nodded. Luka guided him to where they were sitting.

"One thing ma'am," Paul added, "Who will be our operator whilst Smith is recovering?"

"We'll hook you up with Spartan Miller, he's Crimson's operator and he works alongside me. Is this project I've heard of finished yet?"

"No, it's not. What do you want Miku to do?"

"She can stay with us."

"Alright."

Without another word the Spartans left, Roland began briefing the refugees on what to expect in the coming battle, amazingly he obeyed Lasky's orders and didn't scare them too much.

* * *

Palmer stepped out onto the balcony overlooking the armour bay, "Listen up!" she shouted, her voice echoing through the hall, "The moment we returned a planet was snatched from beneath us! The UNSC has instructed us to defend this planet at all costs. We cannot lose this planet! We will not lose this planet! The Promethean bastards seem to be moving with a purpose once again. But they're the same old enemies you gunned down on Requiem and Daneeion. The UNSC fifth fleet will arrive within a week. We'll hold them off until they arrive, good luck down there Spartans."

A chorus of cheers from Spartans and technicians alike reverberated through the armour bay as Palmer went back into the control room. Paul led Fireteam Orion out the bay to collect their guns, and then to the hangar, they checked their guns multiple times along the way.

* * *

On the bridge of the Promethean flagship, Aria looked at the tiny planet in the distance, looking over at Rin who sat quietly next to her she gave her orders.

"Take the planet, leave no Human alive, capture any Vocaloid you find unless they resist."

A data stream entered her mind informing her of the presence of the Infinity.

"Break off some ships on the right flank to take down the Infinity." She looked at Rin with a devilish smile, "Your friends are probably on that ship, are you okay with that?"

Rin smiled, "All I need is you Aria. If they don't wish to join us then they must die, it's just the way life is."

"Good girl. I'll head to the surface when the invasion begins. Make sure these guys behave themselves for me."

"I will, be careful down there."

"Don't worry, nothing can rival my power."

* * *

Light batteries screamed as orange lasers tore through the blackness of space, striking MAC platforms and Nightingale Station, the latter of the two barely surviving thanks to its experimental shielding. Surviving MAC platforms along with the station's defence turrets returned fire, taking down several small corvette class ships as well as a frigate class ship, one lucky shot demolished a cruiser's bridge. The two sides traded blow with one another for, lighting up Arcadia's night sky with flurries of predominantly orange flashes. The Infinity swung round the planet, unloading Pelicans carrying Spartans and marines to key defensive points on the surface, where civilians were flocking to shelters in the area. As the symbol of the UNSC's might appeared on the night side, all four Mass Accelerator Cannons firing into the oncoming mass of Promethean ships, the Pelicans carrying Hecht, Crimson, Vixen, Majestic and Orion made planet fall. Seven Charon class frigates launched from their bays in the bottom of the ship and covered their decent. The UNSC Prowler and other ships which had taken refuge in the Infinity's hangars also launched to add their firepower to the mix. The battle raging on in orbit was just a prelude to what would become the Midnight Week.


	16. Chapter 15 - Midnight Week

**Finally it is done! The Steam summer sale distracted me slightly... but good golly it's nice to finally get another chapter out. As always feel free to review it and I hope you enjoy reading it!**

**Pablo signing off!**

* * *

Civilians flocked to the shelters built underneath the city of Kanris as the Pelicans touched down outside the entrance, the fireteams disembarked and waited for orders, the entrance was situated in a plaza near the city centre with only a few tunnels passing under the towering buildings leading to it. On the other end of the tunnels planetary defence and marine forces had set up entrenched positions with a no man's land about a hundred metres long starting at the nearest crossroads.

In orbit Palmer entered the Op room and asked Spartan Miller for a sit-rep.

"Crimson and Orion are on the ground Commander," Miller reported, "the other operators are reporting in too."

Palmer turned to Miku and ordered her to guard the door, she looked at the holographic map of the area and inspected the defences set up, for once the PDF troops did a good job creating a solid defendable position.

"Have Orion and Hecht move up to position Alpha and hold the line," Palmer sent the instruction to every operator through her radio, "I want Majestic and Vixen defending position Beta and Crimson up at Charlie."

Miller nodded and turned to his console, "Crimson, move up to position Charlie, I'm marking it on your hud now."

A signal of acknowledgement came back.

"Orion, defend position Alpha with Hecht."

"We're on it," Paul replied.

Miller scanned over the radar interfaces, "Commander, we have Promethean transports dropping off Knights south of Alpha… Why aren't they teleporting like they did on Requiem?"

Palmer looked at the holo-table, watching how the Knights deployed on the surface, it was clear they were new to this.

"They don't seem to have the same efficiency they had on Requiem or Daneeion. There isn't any Forerunner tech on this world is there?"

"Arcadia was only colonised for its tourism potential Commander," Roland spoke.

"Whatever is going on can wait. We have a battle to win."

"Orion and Hecht have made contact, they're holding them easily Commander," Miller wavered as an explosion shook the room. Palmer switched the display to one of the battle in space. Apart from the Promethean's initial assault the battle was quite even but the larger ships of the Promethean fleet had stayed far back near the edge of the planet sector, Palmer sighed, on one hand the Promethean's apparent inexperience at planetary invasions was helping but on the other hand the core of their fleet weren't even fighting and they were on par with the Infinity and the handful of ships.

"It's going to be a long week," she sighed.

* * *

Light rifle beams whizzed overhead, smacking against plascrete walls and steel bulkheads, leaving smoking indentations behind. The mechanical chatter of human weapons retorted with an assortment of different calibre rounds tearing through energy shields and metallic hardlight skin. A railgun shell demolished a Knight's faceplate, detonating and sending shrapnel everywhere. Leveling Crawlers and damaging other Knights. Mon Craft slammed a fresh slug home and took aim again, he squeezed the trigger, the magnetic coils charged up and accelerated the heavy round out of the barrel. The shot struck a Watcher group and took most of them down, shots from other troops took down the stragglers, debris showered down on the Prometheans.

Keiran nestled the barrel of the SAW light machinegun in a recess in the sandbags and fired indefinitely, allowing his shoulder to negate the recoil from the powerful weapon. Chris was at his side, ducking behind the sandbags as bolts smacked against it, the smell of the bag burning was filtered out of their helmets. A trooper next to them jerked back as a bolt caught him in the throat, gargling as blood filled what was left of his windpipe.

"They seem to be acting differently don't they?" Chris asked, a scattered burst of Suppressor shots made his shields flicker.

"I would've expected them to teleport like the bastards they are," Keiran replied, his southern English accent was stronger than usual. "I didn't even know they had shuttles like that."

Paul's voice crackled through on the comms, "quit it with the chatter, another group of shuttles are landing," there was a pause, "they're landing troops out in the open again?"

"I'd expect kids like you to make that mistake, not super smart AI soldiers," Punky interrupted, much to their annoyance, "Nova watch your left!"

"Got it," Nova muttered.

Keiran reloaded and looked down the sights aided by the reticle on his visor display.

"We have to do this for six and a half more days?" Keiran muttered.

"Orion?" Palmer said, "A frigate has driven the ship reinforcing their troops away, you shouldn't have any more contact for a couple of hours at least."

* * *

Up above Aria watched the battle unfold as the small corvette transporting her slithered through the battle silently, she was glad to see her fleet giving the Humans a run for their money, but the failings of the landing forces frustrated her, once she was out of range of the Human ships the soldiers were going to get a flash lecture in basic planetary invasion tactics. Aria cursed the Promethean's creators for not giving them the capability to work well outside their shield worlds. Luckily her Sangheili mentor had taught her everything he knew, even at the ridicule of his officers, but he understood that Aria had her own agenda and prepared her for the moment she had been waiting for.

The first day on Arcadia was drawing to a close as the corvette approached the upper reaches of the atmosphere. Aria leaned back in her seat, the buckles clamping her in place as they began to descend, the bridge rumbled as the re-entry flames danced across the one way window. Explosions shuddered throughout the ship like a tremendous thunderstorm, cracks grew wider as the bombardment continued, a chunk of the bridge tore away, exposing them to the harsh winds and intense re-entry temperatures. Several Knights were thrown clear of the ship, abruptly being incinerated as they burned up. Not wanting to suffer the same fate, Aria struggled to break free from her seat, the violent shaking made it difficult to get a hand on the release mechanism. The ship began to roll over as part of the right engine mount was destroyed, Aria activated her shields as she smashed the buckle and broke free, grabbing her combi-glaive as the brutal suction dragged her clear of the doomed ship.

Time seemed to slow down, a MAC round punched clean through the ship as she looked over towards it, the remains spiral away like the red sparks of a firework, manoeuvring into a skydiving position, Aria routed as much of her power as she could into the shield generator. The flames died down as the thicker air slowed her, Aria fired her suits thrusters and her whole world turned into a dizzying mess of sky and ground, struggling to regain control a warning blinked on her display to notify her of the rapidly approaching ground. Determined not to be the fearsome leader who died by falling out her starship she rolled whilst simultaneously flipping, firing the main thrusters built into the back of her armour, she landed hard, bounced and rolled down a shallow hill before ending up in a small rut in the ground.

Groaning in pain she looked up at the battle that was visible in the night sky. One of her stability thrusters on her leg had shorted out during re-entry, pulling off the panel she fiddled with the components to breathe some life back into the thruster.

* * *

Mon Craft carried a wounded trooper to the infirmary, blood was dripping from a hole in his leg and the trooper's groans cast a sombre mood on those fresh troops they passed, another wave of Promethean's had landed a couple of hours ago as it turned to night and had only just finished, only a couple of men had been killed or wounded but for Mon that was just too many. Resting the trooper on the nearest free table, Craft walked over to where Pyre and Nova were resting, scrapes and dents pitted their armour thanks to an unexpected flanking attack which found Nova and Pyre waist deep in Crawlers. A team of fresh soldiers who had just finished basic training were being yelled at by their sergeant.

Nova shook his head and checked his rifle for the twelfth time, "Look at 'em," he scoffed, "They think it's just a walk in the park because we're here. Especially that guy two from the left, he's acting like he owns the place."

Punky walked over, throwing his assault rifle on the ground, "He'll get what's coming to him."

"More like he'll get a lesson in real warfare," Craft said sternly, "We don't wish for fellow soldiers to die."

"Yes sir," Punky moaned sarcastically.

"Seriously though sarge," Pyre spoke, his mechanical voice box substitute grating at their ears, "How the hell do they expect us to keep this up for another six days?"

"God knows, but we're Spartans and we'll keep fighting until they take every single one of us down," Craft roused his squad. "Come on, it's about time we changed positions with Orion, they'll be on watch duty in the early morning."

"Sucks to be them," Punky muttered.

* * *

Aria plodded through the boggy swamps as the night went on, testing her stability frequently in desperate hope that she'll be able to fly the rest of the way there. As luck would have it the faulty thruster spluttered back to life, a cruel grin creeped across her face as she lifted herself above the tree line, Aria shot across the sky like a shooting star, the nearest city was now only an hour away.

"Mistress?" Rin called out.

"I told you not to contact me!" Aria shouted, "Though I guess it doesn't matter anymore, I'll be arriving shortly."

"I was so worried, when I was notified that your ship was destroyed I panicked."

"It's alright Rin, we still have much to do that requires both of us, how is the second suit coming along?"

"It's almost done, the modified cannons are going on now."

"Good… also, at the dawn of the third day send in the rest of the fleet. We'll show them who's in charge here."

"Understood. You can count on me Mistress!"

"I'll contact you later, the combi-glaive needs a field test."

Aria pushed her suit to its limits, tearing through the air like a bullet, leaving an orange thruster trail behind. The city of Kanris was on the horizon ahead of her now, the smoke and fire from multiple battles rising up above the tallest buildings. It was time for the leader of the Prometheans to reveal themselves.

* * *

Broadswords and Promethean fighters raced around the larger ships in a complex dance of life and death, point defence systems and heavy missile turrets blazed away at fighters and ships alike, mass accelerator cannons screamed as they launched their payloads at capital ships. A Broadsword was caught in the blast of a heavy incineration cannon sending it spiralling out of control, the pilot struggled with the damaged control systems, he screamed out in horror as he smashed against the side of the Infinity. Inside the impact was felt on deck 42, Rachel covered her ears to blot out the sounds of battle vibrating through the hull, Len was pacing back and forth impatiently. Luka looked on solemnly, ever since they had returned Luka had been ecstatic, her previous depression had been lifted with the sight of her good friend and her master. However she found her anxiousness returning with Len's frantic pacing, Noah was on a completely different wavelength, the battle excited him like a child in a sweet shop.

"Len please stop walking around like that," Luka requested.

"How can I when Rin could be on one of those ships!" he snapped back at her, his behaviour surprised her, back at the School he was his usual quiet, eager self. Now he was acting aggressive towards anybody who spoke to him.

"We're all worried Len," Al interrupted, "But I trust these guys to bring her back."

"I need to find out what's going on. Miku is still on the ship, maybe she can tell me."

Len made for the door when Al stopped him, "If you're sneaking out of here, so am I."

Noah stood by him and nodded.

"You guys can't be serious?!" Luka said in astonishment. "The crew has no time for some kids running about the ship."

Rachel got up and joined the others, "Come on Luka, I'm sick of this room anyway."

Luka sighed and joined them. They made their way through the ship despite Luka's protests, barely any security personnel were found along their route the corridors were empty and echoed with the sounds from outside, rounding a corner they found Miku standing guard by a door. As they approached she raised her gun and signalled for them to stop.

"Miku what are you doing?" Noah asked.

"Why are you guys here?" she asked in turn, "You're meant to be on deck 42."

Len shook his head and kept walking towards her, "Where's Rin?!"

Miku lowered her gun and looked at him, "Why do you assume I know?"

"You're part of this army! Why don't you know?"

"I'm guarding a door Len! Unless this door is an oracle or something I'm pretty sure I won't know a damn thing!"

The group was taken aback by Miku's retort. It was rare for Miku to lose her cool like this, she didn't seem like the childish klutz they were used to anymore, Len clenched his fists.

"I'm worried about Rin too, but my master is currently down on that planet, fighting on the frontlines, and excuse me for being a bit selfish but I'm more worried about him right now!"

The door slid open to reveal Palmer with her arms crossed, "What's with all the noise out here?" she asked them all.

Miku snapped to attention, "These guys were trying to get in ma'am."

"Why?"

Miku looked down for a moment, "They wanted to know if we had found Rin yet."

"We haven't, now if you have nothing else to say, leave us alone! People's lives are at stake here!"

Miller called out from inside the room, Palmer ran back to see what was going on. Miku watched her, Len crept past and ran into the room, before Miku realised what was happening the rest had already gone past her. The group watched the holo-table in wonder, holographic screens giving a live feed from each sergeant's helmet were projected around the table.

"Warn the squads, Orion has command when it arrives," Palmer turned round to find the guys around the holo-table, "What the hell! Get back to where you're meant to be before I get you guys detained."

Chatter from Orion caught their attention. Miku walked in to see what was going on.

"What the heck is that?" Richard asked.

"Miller, put the chatter through the speakers," Palmer ordered. The rest of the squad's communications began to play throughout the room. "Orion, we have friends of yours who decided to go on a little adventure, they're here right now. We'll deal with it later but just keep at it."

"Really guys?" Paul said.

"Miller, get up all of Orion's helmet feeds."

Four holographic screens appeared at the end of the table, everybody watched intently.

A pair of troopers were running back to the defensive position when a dark grey and orange armoured figure swooped down and swung its weapon at them, killing one outright and wounding the other, the figure flipped over and dropped straight down, the energy blade of the glaive going straight through the trooper's back.

"Hold your fire!" Paul ordered. The figure started walking towards them. Miku looked on in horror, it was definitely Aria.

"Just give the word and we'll fire," Mon Craft reassured him.

Paul stepped over the barricade, slowly walking down the rubble hill, the figure swung the glaive around, the blade sparking against the floor.

"Well hello there!" Paul spoke, opening his arms in a welcoming gesture. "It seems the great leader of the Prometheans has graced us with _her_ presence. A little shorter than I would expect such a fearsome leader to be."

Aria didn't say anything.

"What's he doing?" Noah asked.

"He's trying to piss her off, the crazy son of a bitch," Palmer muttered, "I guess this confirms your suspicions Miku?"

Miku nodded solemnly.

"Come on shorty! We all know Vocaloids aren't known for being mutes!" Paul shouted.

"Vocaloid?" Luka asked.

"You'll see," Miku barely whispered.

Aria had stopped walking, staring right at the blue Spartan making a fool of her.

"What's the matter? Promethean got your tongue?"

"If you had any sense of self-preservation you would keep your disrespectful mouth shut!" Aria snapped at him.

"Aww, somebody thinks they're invincible because they have an army of ancient hardlight AIs and a fancy suit of armour."

Aria pointed the rifle end of the combi-glaive at him, "I'm warning you!"

"Why don't you show that pretty little face of yours? You can't be terrifying without revealing who you are."

Aria's helmet folded away to reveal her face, she looked exactly the same as she did when first created, apart from the pulsing orange lines from her eyes to the bottom of her chin.

"IA?" Rachel said, "What happened to her?"

"Or not so pretty it seems."

Aria began to speak when Paul muttered into the comms, "Aim for the head."

A railgun slug made a bee line for Aria's head, a spin of her combi-glaive sent the slug spiralling into the air, detonating against the wall of a building.

"What the…" Craft muttered to himself.

Aria laughed, "You think a cheap trick like that could kill me? I'll make you pay for that, then I'll make your slave girl suffer!"

Aria launched herself at him, the blade lunged towards him, which he casually sidestepped. Paul elbowed her in the throat, using the momentum to follow up with a punch sending her stumbling backwards.

"If by slave you mean Miku? Think again!"

A binary beam narrowly missed him, the blade swung round in an arc towards his gut which he leapt out of the way of, it was followed by a series of stabs that had Paul on the back foot as he struggled to get out the way in time. Aria lifted the blade up to bring it down in an overhead strike, Paul caught the weapon by the shaft, struggling against Aria's enhanced strength to wrestle the weapon out of her hands.

"Seeing as Len will have a go at me for not asking, where the hell is Rin?"

Aria smirked, "She's fine, once I told her about my ideas she was on-board one hundred per cent."

"I find that hard to believe."

Paul knocked her back with a headbutt, losing his grip on the weapon as he did, Aria flew into the air her helmet unfolding around her head.

"Come on! You're losing to a Human using only his hands. I would've thought the great and powerful Promethean leader would be better at this."

A glancing blow caught him off guard, a rut had been gouged out of his right shoulder guard, a shield warning beeped in his ear. Aria came round for another go, aiming to sweep him off his feet; Paul spotted her as she approached. He leapt into the air, swinging his foot round as the blade passed underneath, his heavy foot connected with her head, sending her flipping out of control onto the ground in the deadzone in front of the emplacements. Paul leapt back into cover and ordered the others to fire. Aria darted around as the bullets passed by harmlessly, a shrill laugh rang out as Aria spiralled away into the outer districts of the city, commenting on the accuracy of the Spartans as she disappeared behind a distant building.

Paul sat down with his back against the barricade, "Did you get all of that Commander?" he asked.

"We saw it all," Palmer replied quietly, "I guess… this confirms your suspicions?"

"Somebody owes me money, but I can't remember who."

Hearing the faint movements of his friends in the background noise, Paul sighed, "I guess we have some explaining to do."

"Damn right you do!" Luka shouted, catching Paul by surprise, "Why on Earth is Aria leading this army of robots? And what did she mean when she spoke about Rin being on her side?"

"Luka calm down," Miku tried to soothe Luka's anger, "Whatever Aria is planning…"

"You probably knew about all this didn't you?!"

Miku shuffled away.

"Answer me!"

"We met Aria once before we got trapped in the other world, on Daneeion, she was with the Covenant then."

"What?!"

"I was on the Infinity but, Paul's… Fireteam Orion escaped from the storm which was approaching, and then we got sucked into the portal…"

"Well why did you leave her there?"

"She tried to kill them! And she got away before they could do anything."

"Well… where is her master?"

Paul interrupted them, "She mentioned something about having freedom she never had when with her master… just in case anybody else who was there forgot."

"How can a Vocaloid be free of their master and still be around?" Noah asked, "Don't they… ya'know… reset?"

The Vocaloids in the room paled at the comment.

"Sergeant, you have Prometheans approaching your position again, we'll sort this out properly when we have the time," Palmer ordered.

"You mean if we aren't all dead when reinforcements arrive?"

"Report any news to Miller."

Palmer cut the link.

"How could you keep something like this from your friends?" Luka whimpered.

Miku tried to think of a response.

"I thought we could trust each other. I thought we were all good friends here!"

"Luka you don't understand!"

Al interrupted her, "I think we understand it perfectly! You were probably intending to kill her before news got out to other Vocaloids!"

"N-n-no we aren't, when the suit is finished I was going to use it to bring Aria back! Though the chance of that actually happening is slim… I don't intend to kill her but if it comes down to it I will."

"You really have changed," Luka was disgusted, "You aren't the Miku I know anymore."

Speechless at the comment, Miku tried to keep calm; turning to Palmer she spoke, "Commander?" she snivelled, trying to hold back the tears, "Permission to be dismissed?"

Palmer nodded, "Permission granted."

Miku gave her a weak smile and ran out of the room, her arm covering her eyes, her whimpering could be heard all the way down the corridor until the door shut. Palmer slammed her hands on the table, looking at each of the kids and Vocaloids in turn, "I suggest you return to deck 42, otherwise you'll be spending the rest of your time on the ship in the brig!" she hissed, "You've already broken many rules and have interrupted an on-going op! I don't care if you're acquainted with one of my Spartans either, they won't help you if it means going through me. Now get lost!"

The group quickly left the room and briskly walked back to the lift.

"What the hell is wrong with you guys?" Noah asked.

"Especially you Luka!" Rachel added, Luka gave her a discerning look, "I thought you were more mature than this!"

"If it was Noah instead of Aria and Paul kept it from you," Luka glared at her, "Wouldn't you be angry when you found out?"

"You guys have no concept of confidentiality do you? The UNSC has rules about sensitive information like that! You can't just go and tell your friends that somebody you know is now leading an army of ancient robots! Hell, it's only by chance that we found out by barging in when she appeared!" Noah lectured them. "Not to mention we just pissed of the Spartan in charge of all the other Spartans on this ship!"

Kasamoni stood in the corridor, her arms crossed and a stern look on her face.

"Why did I see Miku run past crying her eyes out?" she said coldly.

"Vocaloid business, now get out the way," Luka snapped.

Kasamoni walked towards her, long graceful armoured legs clanking as she moved, she bent down slightly to become face to face with Luka.

"I don't like your tone, I understand that you are like her, a hologram is it? Like an opaque ghost. I don't mean to offend you, but I'm still new to this world of technology. But in Asmodae we have a saying, 'Strike at one of the Legion, strike at the Legion'. It means we look out for each other, there isn't many of us left in my legion, only two of us in fact, but I count Miku as a member of the legion in a way. So you mess with her, or Sergeant Foulston and his squad and you mess with me."

Luka walked through her, fed up of Kasamoni's intrusion.

"You wouldn't understand, Aria used to be a good friend to me."

"That thing the Sergeant saved me from on the world with the bad air?"

"What do you mean thing?! She's a Vocaloid!" Luka turned to her.

"I remember him talking to Miku about somebody with that name. I probably shouldn't tell civilians like you information concerning military personnel. I may come from a world with a military structure similar to ancient Humans from this world, but I'm sure the rules are the same."

Luka stormed off in a huff. Followed by Al and Len, Noah and Rachel followed behind, apologising to Kasamoni as they passed.

* * *

In their cabin, Miku threw her temporary combat gear against the wall and untied her hair, she curled up on her bed and imagined Luka saying the words over and over. The sounds of battle were a distant series of thuds. Tears flowed down her face as she cried herself to sleep, the feeling of isolation filling her heart.

On the third day of Midnight week the rest of Aria's fleet approached Arcadia, chasing the Infinity and the surviving ships all the way out to Pishon, the most distant of Arcadia's two moons. In the skies above Arcadian cities, Promethean starships filled the sky, disgorging their payload of Promethean crew shuttles on to the UNSC and Arcadia Patrol forces below. One continent had been completely overrun and reports of cities falling across multiple regions in neighbouring continents, Human forces had been forced to flee into the jungles or were annihilated where they stood, the Human grip on Arcadia was slipping every two hours. The good news was that reinforcements were expected to arrive a day earlier than expected; meaning they only had to hold on for three more days rather than four. A small respite in a dire situation.

On-board the Infinity the last few hours had been eerily quiet. Repair teams went on EVA to repair parts of the ship, the multiple infirmaries including the largest military-only one were busy with injured refugees and crew members as well as the odd pilot who made it back to the safety of the ship. Luka, Al and Len ignored all advances made by Rachel and Noah since the incident, Miku hadn't left the cabin since then either, the news of the withdrawal while Paul and the others were still on the planet fuelled her gloom ridden state.

The noise of refugees and crew members caught Laura's attention. The wound had nearly fully healed thanks to her advanced metabolism and the medical attention she'd had since returning to the Infinity. She looked at the pipe in her mouth, frowning in confusion she called for assistance, a nurse who looked like she had just been in the middle of a stampede pulled the curtain close behind her.

"What do you want?" she asked. Laura mumble incoherently and pointed at the pipe. "You want me to take the pipe out?" Laura nodded. "I'll have to ask one of the doctors first. Back in a minute."

The nurse disappeared and reappeared a moment later with Laura's doctor.

"We can't take the pipe out right now ma'am," the doctor explained, "We're rushed off our feet and we don't have the time to prepare something to dull the pain."

Laura mumbled something that resembled, 'fine I'll do it myself then' and grabbed the pipe and pulled it out herself. The doctor and nurse tried to stop her. Laura coughed as the end of the pipe came loose and she held it in her hand, she handed it to the nurse and smiled, "That didn't hurt as much as you implied it would," she said with a slight raspy tone.

"Check her vitals," the doctor ordered.

"Her vitals are all fine, and it looks like the wound has healed nicely," the nurse replied.

"Where is my arm?" Laura asked.

The doctor opened a drawer in the end table and re-attached the arm.

"Can I go now?"

"You seem to be fine, however we'd like to do some tests first, then you can go."

"Fine, but hurry up."

* * *

Miku made her way to the mess hall, she didn't know how long it had been since she last ate but the way her stomach was grumbling meant it must have been a while. The doors slid open, revealing a relatively empty dining area, the odd crew member either eating alone or hauling a pack of lunches for their work mates. Miku grabbed a virtual meal that one of the kitchen workers had uploaded for her and sat down at one of the tables, prodding the meal with her fork, slowly she took a bite from the meat. The doors hissed open again, Laura slowly walked over to the serving table and grabbed a tray, smiling as she spotted Miku and setting down her tray opposite.

"You gonna' eat that?" Laura asked as she finished a mouthful of her own food.

"Well you can't eat it anyway," Miku tried to joke.

"What's up? It's not like you to be a miserable girl like this."

"The other Vocaloids hate me."

"Huh, oh that guy with the stitches and the pink haired woman?"

Miku nodded.

"And Len."

"Len?"

"He's about fourteen, blond spiky hair, his sister, Rin… she was kidnapped by the Prometheans on Haumea."

"Haumea?!"

"We came out of the portal in orbit around Haumea. The planet was being invaded by the Prometheans."

"I hope Maurice and the others got out alright. How's the battle going there then?"

"We lost the planet within three hours, sorry."

"I see. Anyway why do the others hate you?"

"They left the refugee decks and got in to the op room as we got a live feed from Paul."

"So?"

"Aria was there, they took offense to me not telling them about her until we got confirmation that she was behind all this."

"You did the right thing. Disclosing information like that could get you arrested. I'd hate to be those guys right now."

"They're not going to be jailed are they?"

"No, but they'll have to agree to not spread the information or something with some of the higher-ups."

"I see. Well how are your wounds?"

"Oh I'm fine. The infirmary staff were a bit bitchy about letting me go though. I can't wait to get back in to the thick of it though; my engineers have been busy repairing my armour since we returned."

Miku chuckled.

"Where are we anyway?"

"Arcadia, the ship had to retreat though…"

Miku paused as she thought about her master and his squad down on the planet.

"I guess Paul's team is down on the planet?"

"And reinforcements are still three days away," Miku sobbed.

Laura sighed, putting a hand on Miku's, "Don't worry. Those crazy bastards won't be taken down that easily. When we land on that planet with reinforcements giving them hell, they'll be there waiting for us."

* * *

On the dawn of the fourth day the light of Arcadia's suns was seen for a brief moment before being eclipsed by the staggering number of Promethean ships above the city of Kanris. Swarms of Prometheans were easily held back for five hours until the ships began pummelling the city with Incineration beams. Luckily the ground assaults had stopped, giving the defenders a chance to regroup. All five fireteams gathered at the entrance to the shelter.

"Now what?! Do we just wait for the bots to incinerate us now?" Sergeant DeMarco asked.

"Of course not," Craft replied, all the Spartans were tending to minor wounds nearby, their armour pitted and scarred in multiple places.

"Then what do we do?" Meilin asked.

"You got any ideas?" Paul asked Crimson 1, Fireteam Crimson's leader. They just shrugged.

"We've got to get these people out of here before one of those ships gets lucky," Craft said.

"We have no support from the Infinity either," Meilin noted.

"We could try getting them into the jungles," Paul suggested.

"Are you mad? There are way too many people here to leave without being gunned down in the process!" DeMarco replied.

"We have enough manpower if we include the marines," Craft mentioned, "If we leave in groups of about thirty civilians there's a good chance we can make it."

Meilin, Paul and Crimson 1 nodded in agreement.

"You guys are insane," DeMarco stammered, "Count my team out!"

"I expected more from the second best team during the Second Battle of Requiem," Craft said quietly.

"What did you say?"

"You heard me DeMarco! But if you want to sit here and wait to be incinerated by that laser, that's fine by me."

"Then what do you suppose we do?"

"Inform the commander of the marines about our plan, tell the civilians what is going on and then we get the hell out of here."

"Craft," Meilin started, "I recommend we send a scouting party to find a route out of the city."

"Good idea, Compton!" Paul shouted.

"What?"

"Tag along with Sergeant Qiuyue and find us a route."

Richard nodded and picked up his gear.

"Grant! Join them," DeMarco ordered in defeat.

"Aye," she replied.

* * *

The trio of scouts left a moment later under Meilin's command, taking a route through one of the nearby towers and negotiating the ruined interior in a way that standard Humans could get through unharmed, they snaked their way through desolate streets and blackened buildings. The sound of incineration lasers echoed in the distance, small groups of Prometheans passed by as they left the city, the group stayed hidden; preferring to not engage in combat unless it was absolutely necessary.

The scouting party returned two hours later after meticulously planning the route. The first group left ten minutes later, a squad of ten marines along with Meilin and Punky escorted them, five minutes later the next group left with Lovisa and Hoya. The groups left until Mon and Crimson 2 were the last ones to leave, the city they left behind was now a ghost town, as they walked up the road leading to the rendezvous point a raucous, deafening explosion shook the ground. Behind them an incineration laser had hit the excess explosive ammunition they had left in the shelter, causing the ground beneath one of the nearby skyscrapers to buckle and topple over like an old pine tree, narrowly missing a ship as it fell.

For the next day they made their way through the dense jungle that covered most of the planet, losing some civilians to illness despite their warnings to not drink the river water, the group split into four smaller groups and went their separate ways to reduce the risk of being spotted. Each team taking a group, with Crimson splitting up to even out the numbers. The sun rose on the fifth day, and lit up the sky unlike the day before, there were barely any Promethean ships this far away from the city, Keiran looked over towards Kanris from his perch on top of a cliff six kilometres away. Paul handed him a small ration meal as he sat down next to him.

"I hope there isn't anybody still in that mess," Paul said with a sombre tone.

"They'd be dead by now," Keiran sighed, "Aria has been torching the place all night."

Paul inspected his armour, all of them were covered in dry mud, and the paint had begun to slowly wear away showing the bare grey metal underneath.

"I can't wait until the damn reinforcements get here. Scraps of chatter I tapped into say we've lost the whole of the Lemuria continent and Mu is falling quickly. Kanris and the rest of the Boyne region have been designated as occupied as well."

"She'll pay for this. We just gotta get off this planet first."

"The suit needs to be finished."

"Even if you finish it soon, Miku still needs to learn how to use it."

"What do you think she'll be doing for most of her day when it is finished?"

The duo laughed.

"Finish up your meal," Paul stood up, "We're moving out soon."

Keiran nodded.

* * *

Multiple blue shimmering lights signalled the arrival of the UNSC Fifth Fleet, MAC rounds demolished multiple ships manoeuvring to meet them, missile batteries and secondary weapon systems burst in to life as enemy fighter and bomber craft got closer. Havoc class nuclear missiles sailed through the vacuum, each one finding their mark, vaporising scores of ships with each detonation. The Infinity accelerated out from behind Pishon towards the decisive battle the ground forces had been praying for over the six days they had been trapped there. Every single crew member did their job with renewed vigour, the bridge was filled with rousing shouts and chants from officers along with Roland's crazy cowboy impression, guiding Broadswords, directing weapon systems and aligning the MAC guns. Laura and Miku stood with Miller and Palmer in the Op room, waiting until they could establish contact with the Fireteams under their control.

The sudden attack had caught the Prometheans off guard, giving the UNSC a chance to wipe out almost half the Promethean fleet, which they promptly did. The UNSC didn't stop there either, by noon on the sixth day three quarters of the Promethean fleet were either destroyed or retreating, including Aria's flagship which quickly fled from the system via slipspace.

"Commander," Miller said, "I'm not reading any life signs in Kanris."

"Search the comms for them. They may have changed their frequency." Palmer ordered quickly.

"Have you seen the state of Kanris?" Laura started, "Nobody will be alive down there, scan the surrounding jungle."

"There were over two hundred people in that shelter, there is no way they got them all out unless they left them behind!"

"Orion are with them, those nutjobs will have found a way, trust me… I am their operator after all."

Palmer looked at her with uncertainty for a moment, she turned to Miller, "Do it," she said with reserved hope.

Miller typed away at the console, "I've got a lock. It's Majestic."

"DeMarco are you there?" Palmer asked.

"Commander? How nice of you to join us," DeMarco replied.

"Please tell me you didn't leave civilians behind."

"No ma'am, somehow we all got out before the bots wasted the city, we've been moving through the jungle for the last day two days."

"What about the other teams?"

"They're around somewhere, Crimson 3 is with us, we split up the civilians to make detection harder."

"Good, we'll dispatch Pelicans to pick you up shortly. Other ships will pick up the civilians first though."

"We'll see you when we see you. Majestic out."

"Miller, establish contact with all the other teams and bring them home. Miku come with me."

Miller turned to Palmer as she was walking out, "Where are you off?"

"I need to sort out those kids."

* * *

Down on deck 42, Roland was briefing the refugees on the transfer to the Fifth fleet, the doors slid open and Palmer gestured to Len, Luka, Al, Rachel and Noah. The group followed her to a quiet room nearby, Miku stood by Palmer, the sound of happy refugees shuffling past outside was muffled.

"You realise why you're here don't you?" Palmer asked. The group nodded. Miku was dressed in her pearl white officer uniform which she wore on Almira, a holster around her right thigh with a loaded pistol inside.

"Technically, you disobeyed orders whilst the ship was at battle stations, entered an area only authorised access is allowed and witnessed classified actions involving sensitive information. The punishment for that is quite a few years in prison. I think so anyway… do you know Miku?"

Miku shrugged.

"Anyway, I'm sure you youngsters don't want that. And because you all have such wondrous lives ahead of you, I'm going to make you an offer. We'll let you go on your way, return to Earth and act like nothing ever happened as long as you never breathe a word of this to anybody. If not, you'll all face the official punishment."

"I think we'd all chose the whole live and not say a thing option ma'am," Noah said.

"That's what I thought. We just need you to sign some papers so you don't go back on your word. Miku has the ones for the Vocaloids."

Miku held the data-pad out to Luka for her to sign, she received a deathly stare before she moved on to the others, copying the documents to Palmer's own data-pad.

"What happens now then?" Rachel asked.

"You'll join the other refugees, you're all being transferred to one of the cruisers in the fleet, and it will take you back to Earth."

"What about you lot then?"

"We haven't got any orders yet, but we're probably going to be redeployed somewhere else."

Luka broke eye contact with Miku every time she looked towards her. Palmer sensed Miku's discomfort.

"And I think you owe Miku an apology. She was just following standard UNSC protocol concerning sensitive information. And we will try the best we can to get your friend back."

Al and Len hesitated before finally apologising to Miku, who accepted it gratefully, Luka just huffed.

"Dismissed."

Miku followed the group out of the room and down the hallway, she accompanied them to the hangar where people were being processed for transfer, she saluted as an officer in combat gear from the other ship greeted the group.

"We'll have you guys back home within the week," the officer said.

A Pelican touched down nearby, catching the attention of the group, the rear hatch hissed open. A group of muddied, partially grey, damaged Spartans stepped off, they were barely recognisable. Miku stared at them for a moment before she spotted some flashes of blue and yellow. Paul dropped his rifle on the ground as he spotted her, Miku ran towards her master, tears welling up in her eyes. Paul knelt down and embraced her as she ran into his arms, the sight warmed many people's hearts, even Luka smiled at the sight. Paul waved at them, giving them a thumbs up before they were led on to the transport.

Midnight week had finally come to an end. Each and every one of the troops who made it out alive prayed that nobody else would ever be put through the same nightmare anywhere in the galaxy, even though the battle for Arcadia was just the beginning of the war with the Prometheans.


End file.
